Daily Loaf

Editor’s Note: Actor/director/teacher/playwright Ami Sallee Corley (right) continues her series of posts about the challenges of being a freelance artist in Tampa Bay. This week’s topic: Auditions.

One of the major factors in being a successful freelance actor is getting work, right?  Well ask any actor in the Bay area how to find out when auditions are happening and you’ll get as many answers as people you ask.

There is no one-stop shopping spot where people list auditions.  If there is, it has got to be Tampa’s best-kept secret.  Raise your hand if you knew that Jobsite just held their 2009-2010 season auditions last week and that American Stage held their auditions over a month ago?  Most other theaters are participating in the Tampa Area Unified Auditions next weekend, hosted by HCC Ybor.

Here’s the tip: Tampa Bay theaters have gotten into the habit of auditioning once a year for the general public and doing that WAY EARLY.  Make a mental note for next year.  Beyond that one public audition you gotta be on the minds of the person casting in order to get the chance to audition for the individual shows.

Thankfully there are arts advocates out there who are all actively getting the word out, agencies like Arts Council of Hillsborough County and Actor News/American Stage’s Blog and individuals like Jeanne Adams and Eugenie Bondurant. These have all been very generous in the dissimentation of useful information for actors.

I also invite you to join the Facebook group, Tampa Bay Audition Network.  On each post I make a point to list the compensation at the top of the post.  I think it is very important for us to consider pay for artists a top consideration.  Not saying there should only be paid gigs; I just worked on two projects where a a large number of people signed on to the project, knowing full well that there would be no money to be made from it.  They were both fantastic experiences for all of us.

So please go out and take advantage of all avenues you can find to learn about upcoming auditions, join the groups and newsletters that have proved fruitful and let those groups and newsletters know of upcoming auditions.  Contribute back to these efforts by spreading the word and advocating the avenues that are working for you.

Side note for Equity actors: there is only one full Equity house.  (Equity is the actors’ and stage managers’ union that makes it possible for its members to have the benefits of a full-time job.)  Gorilla, Jobsite and Stageworks all offer special artist contracts to allow casting of Equity actors, but actors do not earn health and pension weeks unless they are working for an Equity house, American Stage being the only one in Tampa/St. Pete. (That’s a topic for a different post — the lack of Equity theaters in the area).

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