Andy has always struck me as one of the most entrepreneurial people I know, and is hands-down the most entrepreneurial theater artist I’ve ever met. He constantly has a busy schedule (he mentioned TNC has about 8 different shows in development right now) but he always makes time for me and for new people in his circle, and what’s more, is always fully present in conversation. If I ran a company developing 8 shows at once (which is only the tip of the Colony iceberg), I think I’d be headed for a mental institution.

I expected that Andy would have some unusual ways of looking at the auditioning process. He certainly does, but what really fascinated me is just how much he’s brought his auditioning process in line with the work he does at The New Colony, and uses it to find actors ideally suited to how they do theater.

In talking to him about how we might do things on December 5, Andy boiled it down to one word: trust. He has to be able to trust the actors he works with, and needs the actors to trust each other. The New Colony works with the playwright in the room, actively making and filtering changes. Andy will often tell an actor to run a scene again, but — without any preparation or input from the writer — change a line. On the fly. Live. The actors he works with need to not only be able to think on their feet, but rely on themselves as an expert in what the character is doing. Instead of just waiting for a cue line, “they have to enjoy what the other actor is giving them,” he told me.

This means he needs his actors to be very entrepreneurial, themselves. “Do the actors tell themselves what do to,” he asked, instead of waiting for a clue about each little thing from Andy?

Talking with Andy and working through what December 5 will look like, it strikes me that this Launch Pad Casting Workshop will really benefit actors who have the ability, have the talent, and have the drive, but need to settle in to their own professional skin and learn to trust themselves and the choices they make as artists. This one’s going to be a little bit scary, and a little bit unnerving for the classically trained actor who needs to find their motivation, find their center, discover the line, then rehearse its perfect execution. Andy and the way The New Colony do theater demands that the actor be immersed and invested in the creation of the whole piece… always.

It’s going to be a wonderful LPCW. You should join us!

-Lance

Need to know:

• Andrew Hobgood will host the next Launch Pad Casting Workshop
• December 5, 2011 at 7:30 pm
• Launch Pad Casting Workshop asks that each applicant have had a speaking role in a full-length, professional production within the past year
• The fee for the workshop is 50 dollars
• More information for actors
• More information on applying

The next Launch Pad Casting Workshop will be hosted by Andrew Hobgood, founding Artistic Director of The New Colony, at The Greenhouse Theatre Center.

Under Andrew Hobgood’s direction, The New Colony has quickly become a creative force all its own in Chicago’s theater scene. This year, The New Colony won the 2011 Broadway In Chicago Emerging Theater Award. The New Colony has produced a string of original hits, including FRAT (and its recent revival), That Sordid Little Story, and 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche.

Of all the companies that strive to produce organic, original work, The New Colony has demonstrated its mastery of a collaborative process. The New Colony’s method of storytelling trusts each collaborator as an expert in their domain.

Actors participating in this Launch Pad Casting Workshop will experience Andrew’s implicit trust in — and big challenges for — the actor.

Andrew Hobgood is the founding Artistic Director of The New Colony. For TNC, he has directed Amelia Earhart Jungle Princess, FRAT, Hearts Full of Blood (formerly Calls to Blood), co-wrote and directed Tupperware: An American Musical Fable and That Sordid Little Story, and directed the performances in the company’s inaugural film So Many Days.

He won a 2006 FringeNYC award for Outstanding Musical for 58! A Comedy about Bike Messengessengering, a 2008 FringeNYC award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for Love is Dead: A NecRomantic Musical Comedy, which he also co-wrote and directed, and which went on to win three After Dark Awards in Chicago. In 2010, he took Hearts Full of Blood to FringeNYC where it won Outstanding Playwright and extended its run as part of the Fringe Encore Series. He and The New Colony were featured at Collaboraction’s Sketchbook Festival for the last two years, winning critical praise for A Domestic Disturbance at Little Fat Charlie’s Seventh Birthday Party, and 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, which also won the Audience Favorite award.

He has created shows for Victory Gardens Theatre’s Fresh Squeezed Series and was recently asked to create a short, audience-interactive play for Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Outside of theater, he has spent the last ten years of his life as a business consultant, working with clients to inject creativity into American business.

I was expecting to get a little insight into his process, talk turkey, and walk out with a clear direction as we get closer to the next LPCW. I knew I’d get something out of it, but I had no idea I’d have so much fun.

Really, all I did was meet him in a Lakeview tea shop, and ask him, “So what do you look for when you’re casting a show that you think distinguishes you from other directors?” The rest was just me taking notes.

He’s incredibly compassionate when it comes to actors and their work, but at the same time, he has very high expectations of the work as the process moves forward. He genuinely wants the actors he sees to succeed, and had several examples of actors sabotaging themselves by putting too much pressure on themselves in an audition.

His emphasis on speech, the music of the text, and the actor needing to be in a safe, comfortable environment is going to teach everyone a lot!

In the beginning, I mentioned the standard three pieces of information I need from any host:

1. A text for the actors
2. A rubric for feedback, and
3. Some bits of wisdom to share with the actors at the end

Instead of getting these three in separate chunks, all we did was talk about theater, auditions, and actors, and I walked out of there with a few pages of notes (and the name of a play). I’ll take those and start refining how exactly James and I will work with the actors.

It was such a fun meeting: the Launch Pad Casting Workshop that James will host is going to be uniquely and organically his. It’s fun to see that as excited as I’ve gotten about LPCW, and excited as actors have gotten, there are directors like James who are having fun with it, too!

Need to know:

• David Catlin will host the first Launch Pad Casting Workshop
• November 1, 2010 at 7:00 pm
• Launch Pad Casting Workshop asks that each applicant have had a speaking role in a full-length, professional production within the past year
• The fee for the workshop is 50 dollars
• More information for actors
• More information on applying

Launch Pad Casting Workshop is very excited to announce that David Catlin, former Artistic Director of Lookingglass Theatre Company will host the inaugural event at The Greenhouse Theatre Center.

David Catlin brings his tremendously creative career, including work with Lookingglass, Mary Zimmerman, and David Schwimmer, to Launch Pad Casting Workshop. He is also a committed teacher. David Catlin has been personally involved with Lookingglass’ Education programs, and currently teaches acting at Northwestern University.

David Catlin’s work, including the creation of Lookingglass Alice and The Idiot has emphasized actors with gymnastic, musical, and circus abilities. Actors attending Launch Pad Casting Workshop on November 1 will benefit from his ability to select from the broadest and best possible array of talent. They will also receive his expertise in training and developing actors.

DAVID CATLIN has served as Director of Artistic Development, Lookingglass Studio teacher, Managing Director, and most recently served as Lookingglass’ Artistic Director (2003-2010).

Directing credits include Lookingglass Alice, Icarus, Black Diamond (co-director), Metamorphosis, Her Name was Danger, The Idiot (Jeff Award), and Lookingglass Hamlet.

As an actor he was recently seen in The Arabian Nights, Our Town, Argonautika, Hard Times, and Manuscript Found in Saragossa. His film work includes Since You’ve Been Gone for Lookingglass/Miramax and Humanoid with Dark Harbor Stories.

David teaches acting at Northwestern University and lives in Chicago with his wife Kerry and daughters Saylor and Emerson Finn.

Kathryn Daniels is a Chicago-based actor, puppeteer, and voiceover artist. Chicago credits include work with Von Orthal Puppets, 20% Theatre Company, GreyZelda Theatre Company, Dog and Pony, Shapeshifters, the Moving Dock, the School at Steppenwolf, and European Repertory Company. Regionally, Kathryn has worked in Dallas with Undermain Theatre and the Dallas Theater Center and also in Boston and New York. Kathryn holds a B.F.A. from Emerson College, Boston. Demos available at her website.

She can next be seen in the World Premier of Van Orthal Puppets’ Berwyn Avenue, which opens on November 20, 2010 at Raven Theater. Tickets can be purchased online.

LPCW: When you moved to Chicago, how often did you audition?

Kathryn Daniels: I auditioned four or five times a week for the first year. It was exhausting, and I didn’t get cast in anything the first year I was here. Actually, the first thing I was cast in was the School at Steppenwolf.

LPCW: How did you get that role?

Kathryn Daniels: Well, it was a summer program. In 2003, the School at Steppenwolf was only about five years old. It was on a much smaller scale because nobody knew about it yet. But it was still more competitive than I thought it would be. I didn’t know too much about it, but when I went in for the audition, it suddenly occurred to me that I was in the Steppenwolf offices auditioning for Erica Daniels and Amy Morton! It was an unwritten rule that everybody would be off book, because you had the script for a week. I did a scene from Burn This with a reader. I looked at my script under my chair, and was like, “Damn it!” so I went back and did it again, and the second time, it flowed well. It was completely nerve wracking. It was so nerve wracking that I had to leave the country the next day!

LPCW: Are you serious?

Kathryn Daniels: Yeah! The next day, I went to Barcelona for two weeks! I was going to go anyway, but then I was like, “Oh, my God, I have to leave the country. I can’t just sit around in America and wait around for the phone to ring! I need to put an ocean between me and this conversation!”

LPCW: So did anything come of all that auditioning the first year?

Kathryn Daniels: I don’t know that it had too much of an effect over the long term, because — really — doing the School at Steppenwolf put me under people’s eye. In a way, doing that led to everything else. I did that, and that led to European Rep, and I worked with them for a number of years. Work with European Rep brought me to the attention of a number of other people.

LPCW: How did the audition for the School at Steppenwolf lead to the European Repertory Company?

Kathryn Daniels: One of the teachers that I met and worked with was Yasen Peyankov, the Bulgarian actor and director who co-founded European Rep with Dale Goulding, a British director. He was looking for a bunch of random scruffy townspeople for Black Milk, so he called me out of the blue. I wasn’t doing anything so I said, “Sure!” and that’s how I met a lot of other people. I very seldom ever get cast by auditioning, it’s always a big fluke. I get a lot of callbacks, but I don’t get cast from auditioning in anything. I’ll get cast indirectly: I’ll audition for something, I feel like it goes well, I never hear anything, and two years later I get a phone call! That happens a lot. Someone will call and say, I have your headshot from a while back, or a few years ago, or whatever. That’s why my biggest piece of advice is to never change your phone number, ever. That’s my largest piece of career advice!

LPCW: So even though you don’t get cast from an audition per se, an audition still has value?

Kathryn Daniels: You have to meet people somehow. I guess auditioning is as good a way as any, although it’s not perfect by any means. Somehow, you have to get yourself out there. When I first moved to town, I was constantly reintroduced to the same people over and over again, and I feel like about the sixth time I met somebody, they knew that they had met me before. At that point, they started to remember my face, started to remember that I exist – which is nice!

LPCW: Do you always have the attitude that nothing is going to happen from an audition, but you might get work down the road?

Kathryn Daniels: I think there are two kinds of auditions that I do. There’s one for a specific project with a specific part that I specifically want. I do all the research and I do all the work. I read the play, and I really get in there. Then I go into the audition, and — almost across the board — those are the projects that I don’t get. I almost feel it’s because I’ve narrowed myself down so much, that I give them something, and it’s not exactly what they want, so they end up not using me. A lot more often, I basically treat an audition like a season audition, where I’m auditioning for multiple projects at the same time. I get acquainted with the company, I’ll google the director, see what’s going on with them, but I don’t get too absorbed with the project itself. If I prepare a monologue or a speech or whatever, I’m coming in with something on my own, I’m coming in with something they didn’t give me. I think that makes it more likely I’ll be seen in a more general, objective way, and that tends to get me stuff down the road.