It’s that time of year again when actors graduating from undergraduate and graduate acting programs are preparing to perform showcases to acquire representation and become known to the casting communities in both New York and Los Angeles. In most cases, the students will perform a scene or two, or in the case of musical theater programs, the students will often perform a song as well as a scene. Usually, but not always, the selections will be made by the students in conjunction with the faculty advisor or showcase director.
As it is not possible for any school to be aware of what students from other schools will be performing, and because those in academia are not present at many showcases, they are often in the dark about works that industry people sometimes consider “overdone.” There are two camps in this regard: those who feel they’ve seen certain things and they really would like to see fresher material, and those who are more concerned with what the actor is bringing to the scene he or she has chosen. However, as I glance through over 100 programs I have from showcases I have seen, it seems that a more creative search on the part of students and their teachers might bring the two “camps” of industry people a little closer together.
In a random survey of friends of mine in representation and casting, as well as leafing through the programs, here are some examples of pieces that, believe it or not, some industry people may see five times in the course of one week. These are the plays from which they are often chosen: “Fool for Love,” “Lobby Hero,” “This Is Our Youth,” “True West,” “Proof,” “Angels in America” (Parts One and Two), “The Dreamer Examines His Pillow,” “The Italian-American Reconciliation,” “In Arabia We’d All Be Kings,” “Jesus Hopped the A Train,” “Lone Star,” “Our Lady of 121st Street,” and “Tape” to name a good handful.
OK, so does this mean that if you do anything from the scenes above, no one will be interested in you? No. If you really “kill it” with the scene and some will again this year (and next year), you stand a good chance of getting some response. Even if you don’t kill it with the scene but you have “killer” good looks, the same thing applies. Also, the prestige of your school will affect the size of the turnout and in turn, the size of the audience will often affect your response.
Now, let’s take a look at what some of today’s most popular actors did for their industry showcase: Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”) performed a scene from Christopher Durang’s “Funeral Parlor” and Alan Ball’s “Your Mother’s Butt”); Adam Driver (“Girls”) performed a scene from “Pretty Chin Up” by Andrea Ciannave; Josh Radnor (“How I Met Your Mother”) performed a hilarious Shakespearean take-off by Steve Martin titled “Romeo and Juliet at Antioch”; Oscar Isaac chose “Zero Positive” by Harry Kondoleon; Sebastian Stan (“Captain America”) selected Clifford Odet’s classic “Golden Boy”; Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”) opted for “Eclipsed” by Danai Gurira; and Sarah Wayne Callies (“The Walking Dead”) appeared in a scene from “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.”
From the world of musical theater, recent Tony winner Jessie Mueller (“Beautiful: The Carole King Story”) sang “Just to Look at Him,” and recent Tony nominee Josh Young (“Jesus Christ Superstar”) sang “Out There” from Disney’s “Hunchback” and also performed a scene from the film “Keeping the Faith” playing the character originally portrayed by Ben Stiller.
Now, in some cases above, the actors performed another scene as well, and in several cases the plays were quite well known. As such, they mixed some original thinking with some of the tried and true. In most every case, however, this other scene to which I refer still didn’t come from the “overdone” scene list above. A possible exception here is Sebastian Stan. Certainly “Golden Boy” has been presented in scores of showcase scenes, however no one I know who saw Stan’s emotional powder-keg performance in that scene has forgotten it some 10 years later. So there you have it, a great performance is a great performance.
But how does one tackle this challenge of finding lesser-known material in an attempt to show something that may be altogether new from the material so often viewed on the tread worn showcase circuit? One of the finest and free resources on the Internet for theater artists is doollee.com. Here you will find the name of virtually any playwright from the past and the present and many composers as well. If there is a playwright whose work you love, simply scroll down the playwright’s designated page on the site and you will find his or her entire body of work listed, along with the number of characters and a brief summary. As such, you could find something wonderful to do from a playwright’s earlier work or a lesser known piece.
Now, look at the menu. Notice the tab that says, “Characters.” Suppose you are a male actor and you want to perform a scene with a female actor, click “One Male” and then click “One Female.” Voila! Hundreds of plays will be listed along with the genre and the length of the play, and of course the playwright’s name. Dig in! The most important factor is that you find material that you love, that casts you well, and that you’ll feel confident will show you at your very best. Good luck and I’ll see you at your showcase.
Like this advice? Check out more from our Backstage Experts!
