My First Acting Audition
It was so tough, you could just imagine giving an acting audition for the first time, how you’re gonna feel, though I was ready for everything, but I could feel this vibe… not a good one.
I don’t live in America and English is not my native language. I didn’t audition for a role in a movie, show, or a commercial, but I was auditioning for my admission to an American Institute, namely : AMDA (American Academy Of Dramatic Arts). I auditioned to get admission into their two year acting conservatory program.
It was the beginning of 2021, and I was still in my high school. The thing was I didn’t apply seriously* I was just you know doing things, I was new into acting, I was practicing, reading books and all that, and one day an Ad pops up about this Institute, and I was like, okay let’s apply and I applied.
Two weeks later, my audition was held, I was at my friends house, it was 2 AM and my heart beat, I could sense it, the nerves…
AMDA asked me to prepare two monologues, one contemporary and one classical. I didn’t remember the contemporary one, but for the classical I picked up Shakespeare’s Othello. And Damn, it was good, preparing and all that.
So back to the audition. I’m at my friends house, in his room, standing towards a plane, skin-colored wall; my phone is in my hand, the zoom app is opened, and I’m waiting for them to come live.
I was really confused. I was thinking how should I talk to them? My English was good but not good enough. I couldn’t understand many things at that time; there were like myriad predictions plus confusions in my mind.
And suddenly, it goes live! There was this one pretty girl, maybe in her 20’s, and she said, “Hey, Taha how r u? Are you ready for the audition”
I was like really happy cause there was only this girl at the beginning, no more people and she seemed very nice but later on she told me things, like “one of our instructor will join us soon, and he will be taking your audition, I’m here to guide you, anything you might wanna ask” I was Dumb AF, and I directly asked for scholarships, which was not the topic to discuss at that time.
So later on the auditioner joined us, he was an old man, sitting towards a piano, a journal in his hands, he just asked me if I’m ready to start, and then it started.
My friend took the phone. I was standing towards the wall, and again another dumb thing. I was like just standing and thinking, what to do now? How should I begin, so I did this. I count to 3 in high voice in front of them and then I started. but our old man here stopped me, he said, I don’t have to count, just start whenever I want, and then it begins.
I did the Shakespeare one at the first, and it was pretty good, the delivery of my lines, plus the accent. The second one was pretty easy, but it didn’t go as expected. I got stuck in between lines, the auditioner asked to begin again. God! The feelings, I was destroyed plus amazed at the same time.
Finally, the audition ended; the auditioner left the chat. and I later on discussed things with our pretty girl here. And then we said goodbye.
Now, I asked my friend how I performed; he said you were doing great, but I knew he was lying. I knew I would get rejected, but I was feeling much better and more confident that I did it. That I finally performed in front of someone, someone professional. I did things, dumb things, but other then this I also did good, like the Shakespeare one, plus how I answered their questions, questions they were asking me about my characters, what’s their motive? What do they want? How are you feeling about this? Etc.
2 weeks later, the results came, and Boom! I got selected for their 2 year — Acting Conservatory program. 4 months later, they mailed me the acceptance later, housing plans and all the things, I told my mother, she was happy. I was feeling proud, some of my friends, they were amazed.
Plot Twist: The overall cost for this program was 50 thousand dollars a year. And yeah, as you can guess, I canceled my admission later on. As I said before, I was just doing things, I didn’t know. I just applied, auditioned, and got selected. I didn’t have any plan, any way to go, but in the end the journey was good. The cost was too much. I felt sad, but it was too much. I just can’t afford it. They did give me scholarship, only 5000 USD! Hell!
Later on I applied for theatre programs in Harvard, Stanford, U of Penn etc.
Another Twist: I got rejected from there!
So, this was my journey, a lost one, started from my first audition. It was great. The feelings were mixed up; there were, as I said, myriad predictions of what would happen, and gladly it went well, and here I am writing this. It was a good opportunity I took to give an audition given that my native language is not English. I tested myself.
Do tell me about your first audition, and all the dumb things you did.
That’s All For Now.
“Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting Lost”
