The Waiting Game

Pursuing making a living as an actor, in addition to many other things, requires a lot of patience. Today, when I inquired about a recent audition, one of my agents said, “They loved you!  You couldn’t have done anything more!….They won’t be making a decision until the end of the week.”  The end of the week?  Bwahhhhh!!!!  Whyyyy?!!?  It’s only Tuesday!!!  Don’t do this to me!!  Just tell me yes or no!!  I can take the rejection!!  What are you waiting for people?!? 

Oh……fine….I’ll wait.  I mean, hey, what else am I going to do?

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to play the waiting game…oh, no, no, no!   It’s basically a job requirement!  When I used to go to EPAs, I would wait early in the morning until the building opened.  Then I would wait in line to sign my name; then I would wait all day long to see if anyone would see me after the Equity actors.   Even now, with audition appointments, I’m not surprised when it’s an hour or so wait.  It’s just the way it goes. I hurry up to get there on time, and then I wait until my turn. 

When auditions have been slow, I am not ashamed to admit that I have actually caught myself sitting at my desk staring at my phone, fantasizing and waiting for that special number to pop up on my phone with some wonderful appointment!!...Some wonderful audition that would cure my creative boredom and make me feel like I was working and going after my dream!!!  Even once you get the job, you wait.  Guess what you do for hours at a time on a television or movie set?  You wait wait wait for your scene to be shot.   

Eventually though, you learn how to wait without waiting.  You know,…you do what other people do when their not at their jobs or school.  You get a life.  You obsess about a boy.  You schedule happy hours with your friends; you go to yoga or acting class and actually turn off your phone; you head to the coffee shop and read a book; you run errands.  Maybe you even go for a bike ride or run and leave your cell phone at home in your apartment.  That last one is for advanced waiters only.  

I find the longer I’ve been in this business, the better I get at waiting without waiting and getting a life. However, there are times when very super special auditions or jobs leave you with a little twitch in the back of your brain until you know the outcome.  This is one of those kinds of jobs….how excited and how crazy it makes me!!!  Bwaaahhhh!!

I have no auditions tomorrow to turn my focus toward, so to cure the little itch in the back of my brain, I’ve got drinks scheduled with fellow blogger Shawn, yoga class at 8:30 tomorrow morning, voice lessons and curtain shopping in the afternoon, a concert in the 'burg tomorrow night, and I’m on the look out for a new summer boy to obsess over...teeheehee!  I'm open to any suggestions in that oh-so-confusing-that's-another-blog-boy department.

I’ll know by Friday, and Friday’s not THAT far away, right?  The waiting game begins. 

--  Emily Kinney