Two photos I've taken so far set themselves up in interesting opposition:
My least favourite place: the audition waiting room. Filled with strangers, acquaintances and people whose names I should know but don't. Even worse, filled with people whose names I only know because their reputation precedes them and who therefore intimidate the crap out of me. Associated with feelings of nervousness, boredom, insecurity, panic. Leaving these rooms is always like leaving a first date: what did he mean when he said this? what did she think I meant when I did this? how did I come across? WHEN IS HE GOING TO CALL??? Recently I leave these rooms feeling like I did ok: I didn't blow anyone away, but I didn't embarrass myself either. I am having a good run of fairly solid auditions, which is much better than this time last year when I was having a run of awful, embarrassing auditions and I left the waiting room holding in the tears that would come when I got home.
And now for the other end of the spectrum:
People both here and in Melbourne have been asking what the differences are between the Houston and the Melbourne theatre scenes and I think I'm finally beginning to get a handle on it, although it's hard to describe. Money really makes a difference. Much more money finds its way into the arts here, because Houston is a very affluent city, and because once you get outside of Australia you realise it's true that the arts are in general not valued as much there as in other countries. So I'll try and tell you about the differences, but please remember that this is my experience and someone else's may be a bit different. And the categories I make may be a little less cut-and-dried than I make them seem here, but they're useful for comparison.
On the bottom tier of unpaid theatre money still makes a difference. Many amateur shows in Melbourne would, with a little change of attitude, be paying gigs in Houston. Some Houston companies at this level have more money than the quality of their productions merits. Another big difference at this level is that Melbourne's fringe scene is much bigger. You're less likely to find a hybrid circus-burlesque-cabaret show performed upstairs at a bar here.
Taking a step up into professional theatre, and here is where Houston shines. Money attracts people who are good at their jobs. There are plenty of opportunities here, and more to the point, plenty of opportunities here for me. There are more straight plays than in Melbourne, which is great. At the recent Alliance auditions, just under forty companies attended, of which about twenty were capable of paying actors the salary required by Actors' Equity. If you're non-Equity, like I am, the money is not great, way worse than this kind of job would be in Melbourne, but I think in Melbourne there are less of these jobs for more people. The work produced in Houston is interesting, good quality, and often fairly new and diverse. Sometimes the shows' content even gets that awesome label, "important".
One more step up into the world of big, commercial Broadway shows. Melbourne is far better at this than Houston, premiering a few big musicals, and casting local talent in seasons of shows like Wicked and Jersey Boys that run for years. (My cousin is a stage manager on these kinds of shows and is enjoying a very successful career.) Now that's not of a whole lot of use to me, given that I wasn't performing at this level in Melbourne - I had just begun to go to these auditions and never ever got a callback. There are only two or three companies here that do shows at this level, and they often, although not always, cast out of New York. Their seasons are much shorter. I have been called back for one of these companies once. There are also national tours that come here for a few weeks at a time. Because these kinds of opportunities are relatively thin on the ground here, actors often don't spend the peak of their careers here in Houston - they start out here, or move here later after they've spent some time in New York. I'm not sure what that means for me - maybe a little later I'll get the opportunity to move to New York or London or maybe even back to Australia at a time when that would be awesome for my career. Maybe I'll be happy to stay in Houston. We'll see. But for the moment, I'm enjoying the tons of opportunity here, and enjoying my new home in the Main Street Theater dressing room.
