Tympanic Theater Company Blog

Courtesy Reuters, from 103 floors up in the Sears Tower

Did you see this? On Thursday, Sears Tower unveiled a 103rd floor glass balcony. According to the article, "Visitors to the Sears Tower's new glass balconies all seem to agree: The first step is the hardest." It makes you wonder why, doesn't it? I think it's because deep down inside, even though the glass is an inch-and-a-half thick, and the balconies can hold up to 5 tons, there's a chance it'll fail. Failure sucks, especially when you can see it coming.

The same can be said of any aspiring actor, playwright, or director. Getting your face out there, and/or getting your work out there can be the most difficult thing in the world. It's easy enough to move to a new place, find your new group of friends, and never get your face out there. I was talking to a coworker of mine who was an aspiring novelist. Yes, that's right, I said "was". Anyway, he moved to Chicago to get away from everything – isolate himself – and write "the great American novel." Didn't work. As he started making new (non-author) friends, he started focusing less and less on the novel, and then he met a girl, and one thing led to another and now he's been working in IT for the last 10 years, on the cusp of starting "yet another" great American novel. What drives that? I'll argue it's fear. Fear that all your hard work, dedication and sweat and tears will yield nothing. If you're in it alone, that fear will be paralyzing. Who can you run to if you fail? But you can't fail if you never fully try, right?

Chicago Theater

One of the things I love most about Chicago (at least it's theater scene, dunno about the writers-of-the-great-American-novel scene) is that everyone knows this, and everyone there is trying to help everyone else succeed. Larger companies are willing to help out smaller companies, friends will tell other friends about auditions, and we'll recommend other actors and directors when we can. For example Tympanic has auditioned countless people with just a handful of acting credits (myself being one of them, in much-too-long-ago Splintered Crosses) knowing that talent isn't just in those with an BFA from Tisch, but in anyone with enough passion and drive to make themselves better. I mean, even our company embraces what I feel to be the Chicago aesthetic – we're dedicated to producing new work. All new work is a roll of the dice. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's not, but one thing's for sure: it's always exciting. And that's what we love to do: create exciting new worlds for everyone to enjoy.

But I digress. All I'm saying is so many people arrive in Chicago and just forget about their dreams. They never go on auditions, or they never take a class. They move to their first apartment in the Ukranian Village, and rather than go out on auditions, they spend their days in a temp job in the West Loop, and nights at Darkroom buying PBRs for a buck (oh Chicago prices, how I miss thee!). What people need to accept is it's not you against the world – there's a community of people in Chicago that need (and want) to help you succeed. While we all love to give a great performance, we also love to see one… y'know, the one that only you can deliver. But, if you never get out there, how can we ever see your fantastic interpretation of Anne Sexton's life?

I know, I know, this is all like one big motivational speech to get you off your ass and start auditioning. Whatever, I can't make you step on the balcony. But how will you know what it's really like to be 103 floors above River West, if you never try?

In case you can't find auditions, here are a couple good places to start.
http://www.performink.com
http://www.chicagoplays.com
http://www.chicagoreader.com

Also, if you use a news reader I've created a small little aggregator that checks about 12 or 13 different sites around Chicago (including League of Chicago Theatres and Chicago Reader) and makes it simple to keep track of what you've submitted for and what you haven't. It is, of course, free and always will be.

http://auditionlists.appspot.com/index.rss

Want a video showing you how to use it in Google reader? Check out this dated video  at http://imaginaryfriendschicago.com/audition-lists.swf on how to set it up. If anything, you'll get to hear me talk a little flamboyantly.

Break legs and hearts.