Auditions, auditions, auditions

Things have been crazy. Four auditions last week and four already scheduled for this week.

Again, in terms of numbers, this year seems to be holding steady. Though the types of jobs, I think, have changed. It's a weird little melange of stuff. Low-budget productions. More and more auditions held apart from the big casting agencies. Random voiceovers. Some higher-paying stuff, some union stuff, but mostly odds and ends.

I realized today that everyone is just working their ass off, hustling and scrapping for every last piece of business. And I'm not alone in it. The corporate marketing staffs are working to stay busy and prove their value and justify their existence (while also trying to do more with less). The ad agency people are trying to convince them to do stuff and working to avoid (further) layoffs. The production companies are out pushing, pushing, pushing. And the casting and talent agencies are doing everything they can to stay afloat.

So I think it means a lot of different kind of work. Work that we might not normally see in the good times. And craziness. At two different big casting agencies this week they were doubling up, running auditions in two separate rooms so they could cycle through hundreds of actors. I've never seen that before, let alone twice, let alone twice in two days.

I complain a lot about how actors are always at the bottom of the shit stream -- lowest on the totem pole with the least power. On the other hand, one benefit of being in this position is all the people upstream who are working to generate business.

Anyway, I remain cautiously optimistic.