My trip to Waterloo…

Yesterday I took a trip to Waterloo, Ontario… a trek that too more effort than usual. I had to go out there because I had an appointment at 11:30 in the morning on the Campus of the Univeristy of Waterloo… for antoher audition. I used to making the trek into Toronto for my auditions but made the tred to campus this time because this one was unique and I had a feeling about this one. So I made the trip and was out there on time for what I felt was a big audition: a TV Pilot.

It was a interesting and very ambitious project, one that hopes to eventually become a hourly sci-fi series. I was reading for a very ambitous role, one that I really liked so I felt very comfortable reading the role and felt the audition went rather well. I put my best in and there’s nothing more I could have done to try to get that role. That’s the best I can do given the situation. One cool thing I should note, yesterday’s audition was by invitation only.

Over a hundred actors applied to audition and less than half were invited to read… and I was one of them. That was one of many reasons why I made the extra effor to get out there to read for the part cause I knew there was intrest from both sides to meet and see how things would go from there. My first impression of those running the project was very good. They seemed like nice, easy going and easy to work with kind of people. Very creative and imagitive, and certainly know their stuff. Their company has been making independent horror movies for about half a decade, but this is their first venture into television… so it’s a big jump for them. The company is based in Waterloo, so if I get the part I would have travel back out there to shoot the pilot.

After the audition was over, I jumped on a local bus back to the main city terminal. Once there I took an out of city bus back to Hamilton and was home at 4pm… and back home with my boys. It was a long day, but worth the trip as I wanted to read for that part. Just for your reading pleasure, especially now that the audition is over… I’m going to post the one page exerpt that I read at my audition, just for kicks.

The scene is as follows: The characters are the agents of station 15. They are trying to quietly ‘take care of’ a creature that has situated itself underneath a road overpass. They tried once to get it and failed and are now mulling over what to do next. The name of that character I as reading for was Wallace:

Wallace:
Sun-up’s in an hour, three minutes,
and forty-two seconds.

Montgomery:
We can’t leave this thing here for
another day, and it’s not going to
sleep as long as we’re here.

Wallace:
Way too much of a risk to civs,
too. It’s pretty agitated.

O’Bannon:
What else can we do to get at it?

Montgomery:
It may come out if it thinks it has
a clear chance to grab you.

O’Bannon:
Oh, I feel so loved and needed.
Wait, you’re serious.

Wallace:
Don’t worry, it probably won’t kill
you right away.

O’Bannon:
Fine. But I want three of you
in position before I go anywhere
near that thing. How good of a shot
are you, Wallace?

Wallace:
Pretty good. You’re going to need
to be at least 15 feet away from
the grenade to be safe.

O’Bannon:
Is it gonna come out if I’m that
far away?

Wallace:
Never hurts to try.

Pretty cool stuff, eh?

I was given close to twelve pages of material to study for this audition most of it was just as cool as the scene posted above. That’s another reason why I was pumped to do this reading, the character is really well written and has the potential to be a complete scene stealer. Wallace is like Jane from Firefly, only he works for a government agency and gets his weapons supplied to him on the people’s dime. Now that’s sweet!

There’s no guarentee that the pilot itself would be a paying gig, but there is a chance. But if the show were to land a network contract (and that my friends is a very, very big IF) then that would be a big payday that would completely silence all the critics of my current acting endevors. That makes working the pilot worth the effort. With a possible actor’s strike looming around the corner (June 30th is when the contract expires) how can you say that the above matieral is not more entertaining than another season of American Gladiators or Paradise Hotel?

But I don’t have to worry about that for now. I have other things to keep me occupied for now. I have real work to look for, and another film to get ready for. I have scenes with an independent feature film that are going to be shot on Saturday, so I’ve got lines to memorize. Something to get my mind off the idea of waiting to hear back from Waterloo. 🙂

Peter