A new preparation for audition (Job thread 1 Fall 513 AV)

[Amolina]

~ Amolina Moletta ~ ~ 50 th day of Fall 513 AV ~ Once again Amolina prepared for an audition. The one she had done in Summer had not given her a role. And now she was so busy with her new commitments at the sanitary station. But she hadn’t totally given up about acting … not yet … and if she was discrete her business associates Valerius Nitrozian and Nolan Parnell would find out that she wasn’t giving the research project full attention when they weren’t looking at her. Besides, they were busy men with many activites on their own agendas. And the sanitary station wasn’t open yet. No research had started. So it was an ideal time for preparing and and attending an audition. She studied the information. It was the usual requirements. It was actually the same theater company too. Deepwater Theater. Odd people…but they had somehow been more than average interesting to her and she was content to make a new try.

[Amolina]

Amolina would spend the lion’s part of this day preparing for the audition. The first part of her work as an actress was auditions, where the actors gave samples of performance for the directors that were hiring for plays. And the preparations were essential for success. The previous time she had applied I vain for the role as Belinda Boyle in the lighthearted average entertainment play named “The Happy Stryfer”. But obviously they had chosen the voluptuous blonde dancer for that role. This time they were looking for actors for a play named “A Trip to the Temple”. The name seemed to imply that this was a serious play and not bordering on busking. Amolina was aiming for the role as Samantha StClair. Samantha StClair was a character type that Amolina wasn’t so familiar with from previous productions she had starred in. Amolina had mostly used to play a young woman who was engaged to marry somebody. But the plot was often that while the beloved fiancé was away on important missions (the men were always like that in plays, away on more important things than their girlfriend and wife to be) someone else would lure the lady astray. Then – the abandoned lover would return of course and lots of drama would ensue. But this play didn’t have that plot, despite the presence of a hot love story. It seemed…hot. Well. But she could do it, couldn’t she? Hot love scenes was a challenge even for competent actors though, as there was no guarantee that the actors would work well together. But there were ways to rehearse it and cope with it in case it turned out to be some unpleasant person … she could do it.

[Amolina]

She started by reading the audition's requirements again. It was utterly important to follow the instructions there. This couldn’t be repeated too many times ! At this audition she would need to do two contrasting monologues of her own choice, one tender love scene and one more dramatic. Both of them actually seemed to require that her to play on top of her ability … it didn’t look like it would be a good idea to do too easy things. There would be no poetry to read, no song and no dance this time. A relief. She had neglected her training in song and dance. It was a pain to do auditions where she needed to sing and dance. Perhaps one day when she had time to train…so far only with Alice Lark in The Spot, and she hadn’t found time to do it yet. She hoped … no, she KNEW she could do a good job of this new role, Samantha StClair. But first she needed to do a good job of the audition in order to get the role. When it came to the monologues she would try to choose them this day and then practice a bit every day until it was time to perform for the director. She remembered him quite well. A very serious man. Seymor Essing !

[Amolina]

As usual, the first step in her procedure was to build up her self-conficence. She would perhaps not feel so confident, as auditions tended to be stressful. But it was utterly important to seem confident – directors didn’t hire actors that were insecure and fidgeted with things, forgot their lines, and other mistakes. They wanted people that knew what they were doing on the stage and liked to perform in front of an audience. So the very first thing she would do was to strengthen her confidence. She had techniques for that. As an actress, she, her own self, was the material she crafted roles and performances of. Like all actors she needed to work with herself, her emotions and thoughts, her body and movements and voice, her imagination and the one she was. Working at herself was part of her job. No matter how down she felt, she would try to pat herself on the back a little and remember the things she excelled at. Focusing on her better attributes would distract her from perceived flaws and boost her sense of worth, she knew. So. First, it was important to feel content with her looks. It would be very hard to be confident if she wasn’t feeling reasonably good looking. She studied herself in mirror. Her looks were not too bad, she told herself. There were people who found her attractive. Well, there might be a few flaws, but in her own opinion she did her best to improve her appearance with imaginative use of cosmetics. She decided she could as well do a few improvements right away, and proceeded to paint her eyelids…nothing expensive or unusual, just the everyday hue of rose she nearly always used. She opened the small box she had the powder in, touched in it with her fingertips and spread it over the eyelids. Ah, she was looking much better already! Then there was the hair. She decided it was looking nice enough as it was, gathered with a loosely bound ribbon at the left side of her neck and falling down over the front of her shoulder. She wasn’t going out and she simply didn’t have inspiration for doing more than this with her hair today. But she told herself it was good as it was. Definitely good enough.

[Amolina]

As always, making sure to be content with her looks was the easy part of the confidence building. The hard part was as usual to think of talents and personality, friendships and what people liked her for, try to remember compliments she had received and things she had succeeded with and the good things she wanted to be. This could seem simple, but as every time it would take effort … again. Amolina thought back on the events of fall 513 AV. A few things had actually seemed to go her way, for once. She was part of a budding research project with two business associates. One was Valerius Nitrozian, who had promised to teach her a few things about medicine - at least Amolina believed he had. And the other one was her former enemy Nolan Parnell, who had finally stopped aiming to kill her and was now going to be a colleague instead. Nobody had called her stupid, bad and dirty during fall - so far. An improvement. Looking at her face with the rose eyelids in the mirror she told herself she had proven now that she wasn’t as stupid as a few people seemed to think. She would be a nurse in an important project ! She was intelligent enough, she told herself. She was talented as an actress too, she thought defiantly. Valerius Nitrozian might consider her a bad actress, but he had never really seen her act … As an actress she would always do her best and strive to make something extra even of an average role, and with a role like this one, Samantha StClair, she would give…everything! Thinking back at previous roles she had done, she did her best to recall things she had been content with and performances that had went extra well. This too was a technique she could use to strengthen her confidence. Some roles had been quite terrible, but she had used her competence as well as possible and tried to give them life. Now and then she had experienced a moment of professional pride. She could do it again, she thought. She could.

[Amolina]

So once again I tell myself I’m good looking and intelligent and endlessly appealing and attractive, she thought. I will do it over and over and over again and then it will come true…it’s said. How easy life would be for a perfect person with no flaws whatsoever and not a single trouble clouding her days, a person as perfect and pleasant as the weather in Ravok… She thought about the fortune teller she had met in The Nitrozian Plaza in the first part of the summer season. Amelia. Impersonation. This was something Amolina had worked at now and then during fall, because it somehow fascinated her to pretend she was another person. But it was not like acting in a role. It was about trying to look and behave just like another, with her expressions, gestures and way of speaking. Looking into the mirror she made her face be still and calm and patient and slightly smiling just like the fortune tellers face had been. This was somewhat easier now when she had impersonated toe woman in practice. She watched her own slightly smiling face in the mirror. The smile was on her lips, but just the fortune teller’s smile, it didn’t show in her eyes. The impersonation she had done had made Valerius Nitrozian ask her : “What am I to you?” And she had told him he was a man that had associated his name with hers in a project they had started. But was that the truth? She had told him other things, other times. She had told him he was like a hero, she had told him he was like a thug, she had told him they were wading in kelvic dirt at KRI and ought to something better of their lives. Perhaps, she thought, it wasn’t about what he was to her, but about what she was to him. A bad actress, a false nurse, a business associate ? She dropped the impersonation. The mirror image of her own face with its true expression stared back at her. “I am” she said to it. “I am somebody that … he listens too.” However unclear, his felt like a good thing to say to build up her self-confidence. An important and intelligent man like him listened to her and often enough he followed her advice. That must be a good thing, mustn’t it?

[Amolina]

She started to think of the monologues she would need to do at the audition. Two monologues, one hot love scene and one more dramatic. Normally it was always best to go for safe well known things so she used to look in old copies of previous plays she had starred in. But this play seemed different and she remembered that director Essing and costume specialist Hines had been pretty different people too. Giving them The Dastard of The Docks and The Unfortunate Mercenary had not been a hit. They had not given her a role. Not the overly flirty comedy, nor the sinister dark brooding melodrama. She needed something else. The Ascontine Plays … yes, the time had come to use them. She had bought them in summer, in Odds and Ends, a whole pile of them, and she had been reading them now and then. They were a previously unknown mix of philosophical narratives and dramatic scenes. She browsed play after play. Love’s Treacherous Allure … This seemed to be exactly what she needed for the love scene ! She put it to the side and started browsing the pile of plays for something dramatic …dramatic …dramatic …what would they fall for, was the question. She had a feeling it could be important to not be too meek. Night of the Nuit … yes, definitely ! This was top class dramatic stuff. Content with the plays she had chosen she brought them with her to the bed to read them there. She lay on her stomach, leaning on her elbows, reading, repeating, memorizing. It was maybe not looking so professional … but nobody was looking. In the days until the audition, she would do this over and over again in order to prepare. End of Job thread 1 Fall 513 AV.

[Abstract]

Grade Awarded!

Amolina

Skills

~ Grooming - 1
~ Philosophy - 1
~ Acting - 1
~ Planning - 1

Lores

~ Play: A Trip to the Temple

Other

N/A

Notes

Nothing to say.