Hello Sweet Bonnie,
I am one of the Cricket Feet Showcase alumni that did your Self-Management for Actors Seminar as a part of the showcase, years ago.
I am back on the east coast as of three weeks ago and have landed an interview with a casting director of Broadway shows (through a friend/acting associate referral).
In the past, I have always been uncomfortable with these kind of interviews and become not myself but a very anxious and boring version of myself. YUCK! So unappealing. I feel always like there’s this huge pink elephant in the room: “You can get me a job and I want a job but we both have to pretend that’s not why I’m here!”
Do you have any advice for me? What does a casting director expect when meeting someone for an interview like this? What should I expect from them?
I appreciate anything you can throw my way! Best to you and next time you hear from me hopefully it will be an invite to see me on BROADWAY!
XO
Hi Hon,
Great to hear from you! I’m so glad things are going well for you and that you’re taking New York by storm! 🙂
As for your meeting, just relax. If you go in trying to figure out what they want, reading the room, trying to change up who you are or what you say to fit what you perceive they may WANT, you aren’t present, you aren’t yourself. And that’s bad!
You’re an actor and actors solve the problems CDs have every day. If you go in needing a job, that’s like going on a first date needing to get laid. It reads as desperate and it ain’t gonna happen. 😉 Right?
A CD needs to know actors just like a chef needs to know ingredients, so when a recipe calls for a certain flavor, she can grab what she needs for the meal. All you’re doing in a meeting is being your best, most authentic self, so she can get to know you. See? That takes the pressure off you to be anything other than exactly who and what you are.
If you go in “results oriented,” you miss the bigger opportunity, which is to begin building a relationship with someone you hope to work with for decades.
Have fun and relax. 🙂 Check out my various archived columns on taking meetings of all kinds. And if you ever want to plug back in with the great stuff we did as a part of “Self-Management for Actors in the Park” back in your Cricket Feet Showcase days, you may want to check out the SMFA Master Class we’ll be rolling out through Get A-Listed in January. (I’m sharing this via the column because I know there are other actors out there who’ve fallen off the mailing list but who may want to plug into the ongoing coaching programs, wherever they now live.)
Be well and keep me posted on when I can see you on Broadway!
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001439.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.