-Yes! What time is good for you?
-Give us a call when you are in town
-Give us a call closer to when you will be in town
-S/he is on vacation/in a show/directing a show/on the moon; call back next week
-Um, yeah I think we can do that
-Are you Equity?
-We don't really "do that" here
-If we saw every actor who came through town, we would be "besieged," as you can imagine
-What do you mean, "show us your work?"
-Ok, come in around 10:30. Don't worry about material, just bring your resume
-We are crazy right now. Give us a call later in the summer and I might know what I am doing by then
-Ironically, I am going to be in New York casting a show when you will be in town
-Can you come to our general audition we are holding then?
And there were other responses (Emily's responses) that I did not write. These are just the ones I had. Not bad, right? And Emily did not do too shabby either (you know, for an actor). The people were pretty damn nice. Maybe it is because their job is to create theatre, and they do it in a place that is not New York.
So we have a couple appointments in upstate New York, two in Cleveland, 1 maybe more in Chicago (that was a harder nut to crack, with their own actor community to draw from), many in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, three in Seattle (so far), and the other cities are still To Be Determined. High five!
And as I was doing my research and writing my letters and making calls, I discovered that most of these theatres were founded in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Yet another reason to love the 60s and 70s. But seriously, that must have been quite an exciting time to be an artist. Not because of the drugs (well...), but because of the spirit of that time. Ah, Bret....you're just a wannabe hippie.
