Step 2 :: Begin to drive to your audition 10 minutes later than you wanted to because you simply weren’t sure of the outfit.

Step 3 :: Get around the block, and realize you don’t have the address as to where your audition is. Pull over, and search your phone for the email from the casting director.

Step 4 :: Gasp when you realize there are TWO sides attached to the email…when you only have ONE prepared.

Step 5 :: Careen back home and rush into the house to print off the second side…where you then learn more about the character and have to change. For the 8th time.

Step 6 :: Gasp again as you’re reading through the second side, and realize not only do you have to scream in the audition, but you have to bawl your eyes out, too. (I look forward to the day this is not a problem. But as it stands right now, I’m still new to this, so it’s going to take me longer than 15 minutes to dig deep and find those emotions.)

Step 7 :: Walk into the audition and immediately break out in hives, realizing that you’re about to cry for these folks based on a script you saw for the first time 15 minutes ago.

Step 8 :: Realize you’ve been defeated when they ask you instead, after the audition, to do a cold read for the ‘best friend.’

And that, my friends, is how it’s done. But I’m thankful for this — I laughed the whole way home. Maybe you think that’s me not taking this seriously, but I think it means I’m much more prepared for this world *now* than I would have been a few years ago. So thanks, real world experience, Emma, Nashville and life, for toughening me up so I can see the humor in days like today.

I learned a lot. Like the fact that casting directors or readers will not always give the emotions to help you play off of them. So the acting truly is all on you. Or that if you want to avoid the awkward sitting in a room with all the people you’re auditioning against, get there early and be the first to sign in. Or if you’re auditioning for multiple roles, have your stuff together because there will be *no* time to mentally transition to the next character before you begin reading for it.

Overall, I didn’t do my best. But I didn’t do my worst, either. And the really good news? I don’t think my hives were noticeable on camera. Haaayyyy!

The best part was…when I walking into the audition, a car drove by and sprayed water all. over. me. I was completely water logged from the shins down. So when I walked into the office, my shoes were making that embarrassing sloshing-spongey noise and my jeans were dragging water all over the floor. But I had to laugh. Because it was my first audition. And there I was. Getting my feet wet.

Somewhere in the universe there’s a chorus of dads laughing at that joke.

There have been a lot of working (or not so working) actors out here who have given me a lot of advice on what to do and what not to do. And as a total novice to this industry, it’s been a process of figuring out what advice to take and what to leave. Many have said if I don’t feel like staying here for the next 10 years, I should just leave now. Some have told me to start in commercials. Others say soap operas. One told me to hide any indication (online and off) that I’m a Christian or have worked for conservative politicians in the past. It’s been a deluge of good, bad and ugly.

Basically, one of the paths (and probably the most viable) aspiring actors choose to take is this:

- Go to Samuel French Bookstore

- Pick up the Agent Workbook – Commercial

- Submit your headshot to every single commercial agent who needs someone like you

- Get picked up, start auditioning, book some commercials

- Audition for student films

- Eventually get picked up by a theatrical agent once you’ve got some solid credits under your belt

This will probably be what I start chipping away at once I’m back from the holidays (and thank you, Barak Hardley, for helping me with that), but I’m still shooting for the stars. Meaning, I’m willing to hop on ActorsAccess.com every day and submit myself for every possible role (provided a shred of me fits what the casting directors are looking for) if it gives me the experience I need to get a manager and theatrical agent.

I’ve also had incredible opportunities to meet with people on the opposite side of the industry from me. Particularly, one casting director and manager have been *so* kind as to meet with me, introduce me to people and point me in the right direction. Yesterday I had a meeting with a management company. The gentleman took one look at me and told me I need to be playing 18-24 year olds. And then subsequently told me my headshots make me look too pudgy, too ethnic, too old, and too unlike myself. The casting director, whose name is Julie, by the way. I’m going to call her Julie instead. Ahem. Julie told me she believes I should market myself as the girl next door, since almost everyone who looks at me is going to liken me to Katie Holmes in the Joey Potter phase, so I need to beat them to the punch.

So, as of this moment, my plan of attack is to come back from the holidays and get into a great acting class (fingers crossed I’ll get in with Adrian Brody’s acting coach. She’s fantastic, from what I’ve heard.). Then it’s time for new, girl-next-door headshots. Which will lead me to submitting myself on Actor’s Access every single day, and building my iMDB page. Oh, and on that note, I’ll probably be reaching out to you all again to look me up on there once it’s built. People searching for names there increases the person’s “Star Meter Rating” and that’s important, from what I hear. : )

Things are certainly lining up to be encouraging out here, but I’m still firmly planted in reality. Does the help and guidance from these people help? Definitely. Does it secure success? No. I could never book an audition. I could fall on my face and never be able to recover. Heck, for those of you who know me well, I could never stop breaking out in hives during auditions and no casting director would ever want to hire me (unless they’re looking for a leprosy-ridden 18-24 year old). You just never know. There’s a partial science in this industry, but there’s also a level of kismet I have no control over.

But I’m willing to work at it.

For now. : )