Hello All,
This is an update regarding roles for 'Once Upon a Time in 1999.' I can officially say in my own amazement that CCC alone has now finished with over 1100 auditions!
That is an incredible turnout and a heartwarming show of support that I would like to thank each and every one of you for. Your time and effort in creating your applications is deeply appreciated, and it was just so uplifting to hear how much fun VAs were having in these utterly bonkers characters.
The next two weeks will be dedicated to sorting through applications on multiple platforms which have all come to a close. As this project is funded by a government art body here in Australia, there is also the wonderful task of documenting every single action, offer and acceptance in the meantime (oh joy).
So, fear not any radio silence as we will be chipping away at the iceberg and will be contacting successful applicants when the time comes.
If you would like to read general feedback for the entire cohort, I have listed key takeaways for VAs below. Otherwise, thank you again for your support and I hope we’ll be on the road together soon!
-- Feedback –
1. If a line is hard to say, then say it differently.
So, those were some long sentences, right? We were all a bit out of breath trying to reach the end of them. As this was expected on the receiving end, it didn’t impact whether or not a voice was considered suitable (that would be pretty unfair). However, it did shine a light on who was paying attention to the grammar and knew not to be hurling out whole paragraphs in a single breath.
Zack’s opening line was easily the best example of this:
“How safe and secure you thought you were, lying defenceless! In your prepubescent ring of plush toys and abandonment issues. Little did you know that I, the great and powerful Zackery, had been stewing away in the juices of these dampest and darkest corners – aided by nothing but this day-old lasagne tray left out for the cats.”
In this paragraph, an exclamation mark (!), a comma (,) and an em rule (–) are all indicators that you should be stopping, breathing and separating your phrases. For example, this could mean emphasising DEFENCELESS, breaking and then speaking the following sentence twice as fast to give it a distinguishable rhythm - then back to a standard pace for the next. By breaking it up into the shorter phrases provided by the grammar, you can recite your lines in a way that is accomplishable and thereby shows off the qualities your voice rather than bury it. To do so, you need to be creative with your delivery and pay attention to the grammar that is hinting you along. My biggest round of applause for Zack applicants that did in fact figure out this code and spoke with a punchy rhythm.
2. Know what you’re saying.
These characters are fairly mad… Superbee above all else. Really question before performing a take what on earth it is they’re actually trying to convey. Otherwise, we may end up reading lines in monotone fashion when we should be acting out all of the different forms of emotive emphasis we place on different words and phrases in a sentence. If an entire monologue sounds relatively the same, then it’s a good indicator that the VA might not understand what needs to be emoted and when – that the character and their intentions have been lost in the jumble of script.
3. Don’t go with the flow.
This is personal bias but I will passionately attest that, in a cohort of 1000, you do not want to be on the bell curve of auditions that sound similar to each other. I need to remember you! This was a big worry for the role of Tai as, in an effort to be in character, VAs went grunge monotone to the point that every sentence was indistinguishable, auditions were indistinguishable and I could not measure who can be happy, sad, angry, screaming, crying etc. in this character. I was quite worried we were listening to each other and thinking ‘this must be what they want.’ In retrospect, I would have changed those lines to force out a greater intersection of emotions for more chaotic angst.
To sum up, always consider your personal delivery as something that must stand out in a crowd rather than check off specific boxes. You can do so by making sure you're conveying a workable spectrum of emotive states, considering each line as unique from the other or, of course, throwing some dynamite and performing the character in a completely different style than what was expected.
Focusing on the positives, it was a wonderful and hysterical experience listening to these auditions. There will be VAs be offered roles they didn't anticipate and entirely new roles created just to showcase some of the wild talent you've all presented. I wish the absolute best for your creative careers and hope you've had a good deal of fun along the way.
All the Best,
The Big Kids' Clubhouse
