The one thing you must remember is that an audition is not just about showcasing your talent. It's a job interview and you must put across who you really are as a person as well. Directors are going to be spending 2-3 months with you in a closed room in very intimate settings and they want to know whether or not it will be worth it or will you just be a pain in the ass to work with. That is also a very large part of the audition process.

You must showcase who you really are as well as your abilities.

Toddy wrote on Jul 5^th, 2010 at 12:09pm:

Directors are going to be spending 2-3 months with you in a closed room in very intimate settings and they want to know whether or not it will be worth it or will you just be a pain in the ass to work with.

This is VERY true with my productions. When I have a room full of auditioners, I will usually assign one of folks watching auditions with me to pay attention to the people who aren't auditioning at that time and to nudge me if anyone is acting in any way that is derogatory towards those currently performing, or just acting in a way that may become disruptive during the rehearsal process. If I get a nudge, that person is probably not going to be cast. 

Yeah, but at the same time. People will put up with a lot of crap depending on how crazy talented the actor is.

Look at some of these hollywood actors....

Toddy, I thought you introduced such a good topic, I wanted to bring it out to another thread.

Meanwhile,

Quote:

Yeah, but at the same time. People will put up with a lot of crap depending on how crazy talented the actor is. Look at some of these hollywood actors....

You are right, Cheeky, some directors will work around talent.
I'm not one of those.

I've learned through experience that there is always another option - there is always another, more workable actor among my network. I'm not shy about shaking the trees to find someone who will help my production team and the cast have a positive run.

The trickiest part of community theater is asking actors to volunteer their time. As a Director, it's just not fair to ask those volunteers to struggle to work someone who will make the show look good, but make backstage life unbearable.

Professional theater differs only slightly. In my limited professional and semi-professional experience, I've seen both producers and directors choose the workable actor every time...

Cheeky Monkey wrote on Jul 5^th, 2010 at 2:04pm:

Yeah, but at the same time. People will put up with a lot of crap depending on how crazy talented the actor is. Look at some of these hollywood actors....

I agree. And I find it's just as true in community theatre.

i should add, though, that anyone counting on the idea that they're talented enough to get away with being hard to work with is at best a tenuous prospect.