If you are in an area of entertainment industry where you must audition to "get the part", chances are you've had a bad audition. Well...welcome to the club. We all have. In fact, I have yet to meet an artist who hasn't. I felt it important to write about this very thing as a follow up to a blog I had posted previously, where in I had shared with you, some recent wonderful auditions I had had. You see, most recently, I experienced what was in my opinion, the very worst audition of my life. How did that happen? I was on a role, on my game, in the groove, I had arrived. Well it's simple, sometimes as human beings who have human flaws, we screw up, and that's exactly what I did.
The good news...I have the answers to this never happening again! The bad news...if you believe that last statement, you're incredibly gullible.
Now to be honest, something happened in the room and it threw me. What that something is, is not important. What's important is how I reacted to the situation. Instead of holding my ground and keeping my confidence, I let the situation get to me. All of a sudden I became nervous and uptight, and that was evident in my vocal production. Not good. However towards the end of the audition, I thought enough. I pulled myself together, and presented myself in a much more favourable light.
Even though the latter half of my audition was much better, I couldn't help but have that sinking feeling of blowing it. When I got to the theatre that day for work, I had decided this, "you have one day to feel sorry for yourself and sad, then that's it. This will not affect your work on the stage, and you will suck it up like an adult."Luckily my cast mates were incredibly supportive when I relayed my story to them. Most sharing with me, bad auditions they too had had in the past.
Here's the thing, looking back, I now realize that I had forgotten a few simple rules. Rules that I do my best now to live by when it comes to the audition process. The first being, "this is your audition." If you need something or something isn't clear, ask for it, nicely of course, and do not feel any less of an artist for doing so.
Wednesday 21 August 2013
Thursday 8 August 2013
What If Artists Ruled The World
What if artists ruled the world...one thing's for sure, it would be a very different world than the one we're living in now. No doubt it would still have it's problems, but I'm almost certain that whatever problems the world would have, artists would find a more humane approach in solving them. Now of course we'd need economists, scientists, and various other professionals as advisors. That's a given. But most recently, I've become convinced that artists could very well do a bang up job.
I came to this thought while watching Ted Talks recently. Ted talks are a series of different speakers from all walks of life, doctors , scientists, business people, artists, the list is endless. Truth be told, I've become slightly addicted to them. I find the speakers, thoughtful, engaging, and very wise. I was particularly fascinated by a talk given by a classical composer by the name of Eric Whitacre. In short, Eric Whitacre was able to start an online choir, auditioning thousands from around the world, to showcase a piece he had composed. He had someone to mix all the voices and the end result was glorious. I thought this was totally mind blowing. The very fact that he was able to bring this many people together from around the world is what inspired this line of thinking.
Think about it, whenever there is some kind of crisis or when people are in need, artists are usually the first people to step up and take action. We have organizations like The Actors' Fund, Fashion Cares, Broadway Bares/Equity Fights A.I.D.S. We constantly have musicians and singers spearheading concerts for causes such as famine relief and global warming. Not to forget celebrities such as Bono, Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo Dicaprio and many others who use their celebrity to help solve world problems and give aid to those in need. It seems to me that artists just have a different agenda...a human agenda. Wouldn't it be great to give them a chance. If you're hungry, an artist will bring you food. If you're sick, they'll rally around you to do whatever they can to help the situation. If you're cold, they'll bring you clothing and blankets. I know...it all seems rather simple doesn't it. Well really, it should be. Think about it...can you honestly say that our world leaders are doing a fantastic job. Look at what all those high powered, supposedly talented, Wall Street executives did to the American economy. They ruined it, and many middle class Americans are still paying the price for their greed today. Even if we look at something as simple as Toronto's Mayor, Rob Ford. He wants to close many of our public libraries and Margaret Atwood campaigned to keep them open. Her only agenda, for people to have access to books, computers, and a place to study. It certainly wasn't for any self serving reason. Rob Ford just wanted to save money. A noble thought, but at a cost to many. I had read once that there is enough food on the planet to feed the world's population seven times over. So why are there people who are still dying of starvation. Artists in this instance, have taken the food over to these third world nations themselves! Just to make sure that the people actually got it. Most of human suffering is caused by greed and misleading philosophies. I do believe that an artist, no matter what nationality, would find a better way to work things out and to make a difference.
Now I'm sure many of you will disagree with me, and that's okay. The likelihood of a movement
such as this ever happening in our lifetime would be slim at best. But do take a moment and ask
yourself, "Are we any better off now with the way things have been going?" After all, we have global warming, religious wars, wars over oil, the U.S. and many European economies are in the toilet, these are just a few examples of where our world leaders have brought mankind to today. One thing's for sure...it's doubtful we'd be worse off. In fact dare I say it, but we'd probably be a more kind and loving race who'd work collectively on a world wide scale to make sure that we're all looked after.
Now...as I said, I'm sure a lot of you are probably thinking "what an airy fairy, load of granola crap!" That's okay...please have an opinion, just make sure you do something good with it. And hey, check out Ted Talks on YouTube. They really are wonderful.
Yours Truly
Stephen Findlay-Artist-A.K.A. The Oldest Male Chorus Boy In Toronto
I came to this thought while watching Ted Talks recently. Ted talks are a series of different speakers from all walks of life, doctors , scientists, business people, artists, the list is endless. Truth be told, I've become slightly addicted to them. I find the speakers, thoughtful, engaging, and very wise. I was particularly fascinated by a talk given by a classical composer by the name of Eric Whitacre. In short, Eric Whitacre was able to start an online choir, auditioning thousands from around the world, to showcase a piece he had composed. He had someone to mix all the voices and the end result was glorious. I thought this was totally mind blowing. The very fact that he was able to bring this many people together from around the world is what inspired this line of thinking.
Think about it, whenever there is some kind of crisis or when people are in need, artists are usually the first people to step up and take action. We have organizations like The Actors' Fund, Fashion Cares, Broadway Bares/Equity Fights A.I.D.S. We constantly have musicians and singers spearheading concerts for causes such as famine relief and global warming. Not to forget celebrities such as Bono, Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo Dicaprio and many others who use their celebrity to help solve world problems and give aid to those in need. It seems to me that artists just have a different agenda...a human agenda. Wouldn't it be great to give them a chance. If you're hungry, an artist will bring you food. If you're sick, they'll rally around you to do whatever they can to help the situation. If you're cold, they'll bring you clothing and blankets. I know...it all seems rather simple doesn't it. Well really, it should be. Think about it...can you honestly say that our world leaders are doing a fantastic job. Look at what all those high powered, supposedly talented, Wall Street executives did to the American economy. They ruined it, and many middle class Americans are still paying the price for their greed today. Even if we look at something as simple as Toronto's Mayor, Rob Ford. He wants to close many of our public libraries and Margaret Atwood campaigned to keep them open. Her only agenda, for people to have access to books, computers, and a place to study. It certainly wasn't for any self serving reason. Rob Ford just wanted to save money. A noble thought, but at a cost to many. I had read once that there is enough food on the planet to feed the world's population seven times over. So why are there people who are still dying of starvation. Artists in this instance, have taken the food over to these third world nations themselves! Just to make sure that the people actually got it. Most of human suffering is caused by greed and misleading philosophies. I do believe that an artist, no matter what nationality, would find a better way to work things out and to make a difference.
Now I'm sure many of you will disagree with me, and that's okay. The likelihood of a movement
such as this ever happening in our lifetime would be slim at best. But do take a moment and ask
yourself, "Are we any better off now with the way things have been going?" After all, we have global warming, religious wars, wars over oil, the U.S. and many European economies are in the toilet, these are just a few examples of where our world leaders have brought mankind to today. One thing's for sure...it's doubtful we'd be worse off. In fact dare I say it, but we'd probably be a more kind and loving race who'd work collectively on a world wide scale to make sure that we're all looked after.
Now...as I said, I'm sure a lot of you are probably thinking "what an airy fairy, load of granola crap!" That's okay...please have an opinion, just make sure you do something good with it. And hey, check out Ted Talks on YouTube. They really are wonderful.
Yours Truly
Stephen Findlay-Artist-A.K.A. The Oldest Male Chorus Boy In Toronto
Saturday 3 August 2013
Confessions of the Oldest Male Chorus Dancer in Toronto: Jump Up And Find Out What Happens On The Way Down
Confessions of the Oldest Male Chorus Dancer in Toronto: Jump Up And Find Out What Happens On The Way Down: Cool title don't you think. I do and wish I could take credit for the phrase, but I can't. It was a phrase quoted to me, by an instr...
Confessions of the Oldest Male Chorus Dancer in Toronto: The Audition That Changed My Life
Confessions of the Oldest Male Chorus Dancer in Toronto: The Audition That Changed My Life: Pretty dramatic title isn't it. "The Audition That Changed My Life." Well, the truth is, I've had a few auditions that hav...
Confessions of the Oldest Male Chorus Dancer in Toronto: I Am The Dance Class Nazi
Confessions of the Oldest Male Chorus Dancer in Toronto: I Am The Dance Class Nazi: I love teaching open classes. I especially love teaching them in the summer. In the summer, I meet so many new dancers from different studio...
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