BWW Blog: Christopher Panella - Advice You Should Definitely Take: Love What Everyone Else Hates

Auditions. The thing theatre kids hate most. Auditions cause massive anxiety, stress, sleepless nights. They are hellish and terrifying. Regardless of the hate we all feel for auditions, this blog is dedicated to advising theatre kids to love auditions. Wait... is that even possible? Anything's Possible! Loving auditions can be the best thing theatre kids learn. Even though every person in the theatre world seems to hate them with a passion, learn to be different: love what everyone else hates.

The sheer environments of auditions are not very inviting. A table of casting directors look down on you as flail and throw yourself around in a desperate attempt to get casted. My best advice is learn to make these auditions inviting. Stop second guessing yourself, stop worrying about what the casting directors think. Stop thinking. I find myself in auditions constantly, and until this year I would get sick from nerves, often puking and driving myself to barely be able to stand without my head spinning. I have terrible anxiety about a lot of things, but auditioning was one of my top ten least favorite things to do. I tried everything early in my high school theatre career to make the audition week as simple as possible. From volunteering to go first, to waiting until last, to not paying attention to any of the other people auditioning, to watching every single audition to see what to do and what not to do, I had so many different theories and practices to handling auditions. I specifically remember my sophomore year FLHS Drama audition for our mainstage Legally Blonde as being one of the worst experiences of my life. I spent the weeks before the audition crying, puking, never leaving my bed unless absolutely necessary. I made an effort to volunteer first to audition, but was choked up and decided it would be best to wait. That year was a climax in terms of my anxiety regarding auditions, and after the production was over, I vowed to force myself to love auditions.

Auditions were dreadful to me because I hated being out of my comfort zone and possibly judged. So I started practicing being out of my comfort zone. Whether it involved singing in the shower with my family home (which I hate to this day because it's out of my comfort zone) or wearing outfits and clothes that I knew people would judge, I pushed myself to break my comfort zone and face the possibility of judgement. Little by little, I began to enjoy being out of my comfort zone, taking risks. I went to more auditions and pushed myself at every audition. Auditions turned into something beautiful, something wonderful. They're a safe zone, a zone where you can break boundaries and scream and cry in front of people who don't know you, and therefore can't judge you based on anything you've done before. I went into an audition where I was pretty awful, just simply due the fact that I had not been able to do the solo song I loved because I couldn't find a karaoke and had to do my backup solo song, which I did not like particularly. Halfway through the audition, I realized the casting directors were bored out of their mind and too polite to stop me. So, I decided I had nothing to lose. I started taking risks on my monologue, crying and speaking in accents and moving around as much as possible. It probably wasn't the best sight for the casting director, but they complimented me after by telling me they liked and appreciated that I had taken risks.

Fast forward, auditions have become my zone to truly express everything without judgement or long lasting opinions. So, what is my advice exactly? Go into every audition you can. Take risks at every audition, push yourself even if it isn't pretty. Just let your craft lead you. Learn to love what makes you scared, because the moment you love it is the moment you can feel comfortable to do whatever you want. Learn to love auditions and use the anxiety you feel to take risks and be inventive. You'll never audition the same way twice.