"Let me just say, I don't think you're pandering enough."
I looked up to see a fellow actor half-smiling at me, mouth screwed to one side, eyebrow cocked. He had a half dozen scripts in his hand. I had one.
We were both volunteers for the Young Storytellers Foundation's Big Night performance of short scripts written by 4th and 5th graders at a local LA grade school. After weeks of mentoring, pint-sized writers got to see their work acted out by professional adult actors in a public performance in their school auditorium, in front of an audience of their parents and classmates.
It's designed as a cold reading, something I do on a weekly basis as part of Naked Angels' Tuesdays @ 9 series. Based on my experience with that over the last several years, I thought I could just show up and be cast in any role for which I looked appropriate.
But based on the behavior of the other, more seasoned volunteers, it seems you have to campaign.
"I don't mean to question your credibility," he said, "But you've got to get in there and show them what you can do."
I was quick to agree that I wasn't pandering enough, but I didn't really see how his tactics - saying things like "I love fish!" when receiving a character description or "That's my mother's name!" when hearing a writer's name - really proved anything about his ability to perform a role or embody a character. But it did get him noticed, time and again, script after script.
It was my first time volunteering, and with no experience in children's theater, and little experience in improv, I actually didn't really care how many scripts I received. It wasn't a competition for me. I just wanted to help these kids realize their creative visions, and if they didn't need or want me, so be it. I didn't see getting cast as a reward, and I didn't want to be rewarded for being the most obnoxious person or the loudest voice.
After all, wasn't it about the writers? Why did I have to make it about me? Must an actor always be selfish, self-obsessed? In order to be a successful (and by that I do not mean good) actor, do I always have to be all "Look at me!"?
Of course, acting is just like any other job. The employer wants to hire someone who wants to be there, and who tries hard to get hired. Enthusiasm sometimes outweighs credentials. And as a candidate, you have to find ways to make yourself memorable.
On Tuesday nights, at my regular cold reading series, I try to make myself visible, but I don't campaign. At best, I stand there and try to look cute.
But every now and then a fellow actor - usually somewhat more of a newbie - takes pity on me standing there emptyhanded, and says something like, "You don't have anything yet? Well get up there and get something!"
I've been doing this for a long time, first for years in New York and now for a year in LA, and by now, the organizers who cast the scripts know me. They see me. They know I'm there. If they have a role I'm appropriate for, they'll give it to me to read. And sometimes if they don't, they'll apologize.
I don't have to read every week. I don't need every role to be big. I don't need every line to be funny. I take what's given to me and I make the best of it, in hopes that it helps the writers who are developing their scripts.
But I suspect it only works that way in my little bubble. I'm not sure that's how it works in real life.
