Recently I auditioned for Walter Wyke’s play, The Profession, directed by Dan Cerullo. Going on my first audition here at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey was something that got my adrenaline pumping. Performing is my true passion and finding an outlet for it here on campus was of paramount importance to me. The show’s cast called for three actors total, with one female lead. Talk about intimidating. I had never auditioned for something so exclusive. In reality, I just wanted to get my name out there and associated with the theater program. I wasn’t expecting to receive a part, but I wanted to dip my toes in the water of college theater.
I auditioned with a dry reading of a monologue that Dan, the director, had provided me. Having never seen the monologue before I was very nervous, but I connected to it and felt as though I could really portray the character well. It was an exhilarating feeling to deliver the monologue in the Experimental Theater for two reasons. The first was that I had never had an opportunity to perform in black box before. The second was because I was making the director and stage manager laugh. Nothing is more encouraging to an actor than an engaged audience that responds to his/her humor.
It was so rewarding when my name was on the callback list. My first college audition yielded my first college callback! I had never thought that my audition would do anything more than connect me with more students involved in theater. Having a callback was an extremely heartening experience. In the end, although I was not cast in the show, I had accomplished two items on my college bucket list: (1) audition for a show and (2) get a callback. I hadn’t expecting to achieve either of these things in my first semester, let alone in the same day!
Having had such a great experience with my audition, I could not wait to see the show go up and support the cast. I signed up to usher for the Saturday night performance, excited to get to help out with the show in some small way. The show itself was unlike anything I had ever had the opportunity to work with before. The Profession is an absurdist piece, which means that just when the audience is grasping the plot of the play, something crazy happens that challenges everything that they believe and forces them to question what it all really means. In the same way that a dystopia novel causes the reader to question how the commentary applies to his/her every day life, absurdist pieces of theater provoke the same types of questions. The genre was something I had never experienced before but I have always loved dystopia novels; I was so excited for the show to begin.
The show followed the character Eugene, portrayed by my friend Jeremy Rotolo, who was learning the trade of The Profession along with another student Rosetta, played by Taylor Cawley. Both characters were being taught the profession by an ominous looking teacher, Schaefer played by Ryan Gorman, who appeared to tower over his students. The content covered in their course seemed extreme to Eugene and he often objected to the lessons, questioning their necessity and by extension his purpose. Throughout the show, Eugene’s questions reflected the questions of the audience. As the drama escalated to a climactic point, the questions that bounced around in my head were abundant. I left the theater with more questions than answers as there wasn’t a real resolution. At first, I wasn’t satisfied; the show was lacking a conventional dénouement. Upon reflection I realized that having so many questions in the end was what made The Profession a success. Good theater is theater that leaves makes the audience think, and almost a week later I am still thinking about The Profession.