Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Introducing Dinky Pipe and Drape! Dinky Episode 1: TYA Auditions and Theatre Conferences


STEPHEN FALA: I’m Stephen Fala, and you’re listening to Pipe and Drape, the only podcast that spotlights the creative minds behind the theatre for young audiences industry.

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Every two weeks I sit down with a theatre professional and learn how their experience in children’s theatre helped them bridge their path from youth to adulthood. I’m here between my bi-weekly interviews to share what I’m calling a “dinky” episode of Pipe and Drape.

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Every once in a while I will pop in with a short, “dinky,” episode to share information that is relevant to the topics that are discussed with my guests. Thank you for listening today.

Right now I want to give y’all the run-down on theatre conferences. If you’re seeing theatre for young audiences in the United States, there is a good chance that the actors on stage booked that job from a theatre conference. A few of my guests have mentioned theatre conferences (namely UPTA which is the UnifiedProfessional Theatre Auditions and SETC which is the Southeastern Theatre Conference) and I wanted to give a brief summary on their purpose and function. Theatre conferences are audition/interview/networking opportunities for union (Actors Equity) and non-union actors, stage managers, and production personnel in the United States. One of the most attended and most organized of these conferences is UPTA, so I will be using my experience as an attending actor as an example. 

About a thousand theatre-makers from all over the US attend UPTA in Memphis, TN each February to audition and interview with eighty theatre companies for seasonal work. The conference takes place over a long weekend (the first Friday-Monday in February), and during this time actors complete an initial ninety-second audition for all eighty companies at once, and then are invited to a group dance call or smaller callbacks with the companies. It’s a fun and hectic weekend for everyone involved.

The conference has room for about a thousand attendees, all of which sign up online at noon central time on September 1st. The UPTA site server crashes every year because hundreds of prospective attendees go to the conference’s website around the same time to try to get an audition/interview slot. Once that’s done, the audition/interview sign-up form prompts each person to re-type their resume, upload a headshot, select the type of work they want to get from the conference (i.e. touring, theatre for young audiences, theme park, cruise line, internship, apprenticeship, musicals, plays, Shakespeare, outdoor drama), audition/interview date preference, and credit card information. The fee is under a hundred dollars, and it does not cover food, lodging, or travel expenses, and credit cards are only charged if the prospective attendee receives a slot. College students are required to submit a pre-screen video audition (viewed by a committee of UPTA representatives) and a letter of recommendation from the head of their university theatre department. 

 The UPTA team distributes audition/interview slots within a few weeks of the sign up date. A majority of the conference (interviews/callbacks/the dance call) takes place at the Sheraton Downtown in Memphis, TN, and out of convenience most of the attendees book a room there once they get a slot.

The only portion of the conference that is not at the Sheraton is that initial ninety-second audition that actors do for the eighty companies. This occurs at Playhouse on the Square, which is just a short shuttle ride away from the Sheraton (that is a tongue-twister.) A few weeks before the conference, the UPTA team sends out an email detailing all the information there is to know about the conference including a picture of the set that will be up at Playhouse on the Square. This is so that actors can pack an audition outfit that wont blend into the set. Besides audition clothes, the only thing actors really have to pack are headshots and resumes. Each company viewing these initial auditions has a sheet of paper including the resume, headshot, and interest information performers entered into the UPTA website in September, but companies will ask for a high-res copies of headshots and resumes during callbacks. There’s no telling how many callbacks each performer will get. They can get zero or maybe forty callbacks. In theory anyone could get eighty callbacks but like…

There are no assigned audition times during UPTA, just days and numbers. This means that the only way to know how far along auditions are is by calling into the UPTA hotline. Someone will answer, say the number of the auditioner that is on deck, and then hang up. So if the actor on deck is number 105 and I’m number 205, I should maybe hurry up and get to the theatre. After that short shuttle ride to the theatre the actors gather in a holding room with hundred people, all singing, all talking about their friends from Jenny Wiley. Someone is playing the piano, someone has a steamer, someone is pouring an entire bottle of honey down their throat, and at least seven people will do a full outfit/make up/personality transformation in the corner. Ten audition numbers are called at a time to sit on-deck in the hall outside the theatre. Just before auditioning, the actors have time to discuss their audition song cuts with one of the two accompanists before doing the ninety-second audition. The first time I went to the conference my package was over ninety-seconds, so the monitor called “time” before I finished my monologue. It happens.

Then it’s over! Just kidding. Callback lists for each company are posted every hour in one of the second floor ballrooms at the Sheraton. If called back by a company, actors are responsible for signing up for a time to meet with that company’s representatives that evening in that company’s hotel room. Scheduling can be tricky depending on the number of callbacks each actor has and the available times the company has. Companies are very understanding if someone is late and needs to reschedule their time. If an actor is asked to dance by one or more companies, they attend the one dance call that evening in one of the ballrooms that all companies attend. Three combinations are taught at that time, and it is up to each performer to decide if they should do the very easy mover combination or the nearly impossible jazz/tap call.

From dance calls to individual callbacks, actors spend the night bouncing around the hotel. Some callbacks involve learning new material, sometimes performers just re-do their ninety-second audition package, sometimes they present something different from their rep, sometimes they read sides or sing, and many companies just want to sit and talk. They want to know if they’re gonna hire a nice person, and this is especially true with theatre for young audiences companies. They saw who can perform, but they need to know that their employees are nice and wont murder their coworkers while traveling cross-country in a van. There is no time to eat dinner on this evening. Some companies realize how wild and unusual this experience is, and they give out snacks. 

Then it’s 1AM and attendees end up at Westy’s with an ice cream brownie sundae bigger than your face, or two or three glasses of wine, or immediately go to sleep.

I’ve interviewed and auditioned with a number of companies while at UPTA, and after a few conferences I picked up on a few trends. Every TYA company will tell you, “We don’t talk down to kids like other companies” and “this isn’t dinky pipe and drape” regardless of the quality of their product or how well they treat their employees. Know what shows are “hot” in the non-union circuit, because many companies at the conference will be doing them in their season, and they will ask you to prepare material for those shows for callbacks. For example, Catch Me If You Can was the hot show one season, and when I was called back for one of the many companies doing Catch Me If You Can I was asked to prepare two songs from the show to sing for them when I came in later that evening. Thank goodness I had a roommate who sang the score so often that I had memorized it, because if he hadn’t I would have looked a fool in that callback. Some companies will call you back every year because they remember you. Sometimes they will hire you and sometimes they will not. One company kept me in the room for forty-five minutes and ended up asking me to perform every monologue I had learned over the last five years, learn a tap combination, dissect the ups and downs of my college theatre experience, and sing two songs.  If I am interested in a company, I will always reach out to let them know that I enjoyed meeting with them. While I normally encourage actors to hand-write letters of interest, the companies casting from UPTA are usually looking to line up their season employees pretty quickly, so I always send an email with my interest, contact and reel information, and news about what I’m working on (professional or personal) as soon as the weekend of the conference is over.

[The end of the Dinky Pipe and Drape theme plays.]

Thank you for tuning in for this first "dinky" Pipe and Drape installment. For more information about UPTA you can visit upta.org. I have included links that can help further your research about theatre conferences in the US in the episode notes.

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You can join the conversation about theatre for young audiences and find more Pipe and Drape content including photos, quotes, and TYA news on Instagram @PipeAndDrapeStories. And please be sure to rate and review Pipe and Drape wherever you listen to podcasts! Each star given or review submitted helps future listeners to find the show. Be sure to tune in every other Tuesday to hear theatre for young audiences creatives share their pipe and drape stories. Pipe and Drape is created and hosted by Stephen Fala and distributed by Anchor. Artwork for Pipe and Drape was created by Stephen Gordon and music was composed by Stephen Fala. Thank you for listening with me today. 


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