Steps

It's another day and another missed deadline, but tomorrow is another day. In any case, recent events turn my attention to the steps that result in booking an acting job. I can only speak for myself on the strength of my own limited experience, of course. If you're fortunate, you get in the room for an audition in the first place. Of all the people that want to, not many do. There's a casting office with this sign on the wall that says how many typically do (with the point being that you ought to have gratitude for getting as far as you do even if you don't get as far as you'd like).

If you do well in the audition, that's probably not the end of it, although I did book something after just one audition. That's atypical. More likely you get a callback. Instead of just one person in the room, you're facing several, and you may be called on to do more than you did in the first audition or to do something very different. It's a more nerve-wracking experience, although I think I'm getting better with repetition.


From there it gets nebulous. You could just book the job at that point, which happened for me once, or you could get put on avail, which has now happened to me a few times. It means little for sure except that you still have a shot. They maybe will have several people on avail for the same job, and the extra time is spent settling just who's going to get it. Until that is settled, you keep your schedule clear and stand by. So far I have not booked a job after being put on avail.

I'd just as soon not hear a word after the callback if it's not happening for me. Getting nothing after the first audition is painless. Getting nothing after the callback, I can still deal with it. Getting nothing after being put on avail hurts some. I can get over it, and forget in time, but it takes more time when you think that it was really in your hands, even though that's not truly what's going on. I don't honestly know yet what's going on. What I've said is as much as I do understand, which is exhausted in a few paragraphs.