Horrors at Pearl Studio

Originally posted March 7, 2020

February was the last time I was seen in an audition room. Partially due to my own self rejection and partially because…. IT’S CRAZY OUT HERE, YA’LL! If you’re reading this, I assume you’ve read the entire saga of my 7 month here and how often I go in for things and I’m not seen. Well, audition season is an entirely different beast…

I was personally victimized by the Hairspray Non-Union National Tour Open Call…

Along with about another thousand hopefuls in NYC… It was the one call that I knew I wanted to go to this month, which felt a little silly, because there isn’t really a perfect part for me in Hairspray…

When I finally got in line at 7am, which I understand is late-ish in open call terms, I didn’t realize it was THIS LATE.

Luckily, the weather was comfortable, the forecast said to expect rain and it didn’t rain on us…

We stood outside on the opposite side of the city block until 9 am when the studio opened and watched for 2 hours as people kept adding to the line. Apparently at one point there were 2 lines going into the studio so when the studio finally DID open, one line cut in front of the entirely too long Hairspray line claiming that they were just there for the other auditions but somehow their names also got on the Hairspray list… Now, I obviously didn’t see this happen because as you can see from the map, I was a loser in the back, but audition update was throwing a HISSY fit about line cutters. I even saw a post that said, “line cutters don’t get booked” BAHAHAHA! If only Karma worked so perfectly. I heard people complain about having been there since 3am…. 3AM! Insanity.

I can’t tell you how many more times this line wrapped around this city block… but I can tell you that once the studio opened, they did have to separate people out and shut down the elevator access to the studio floor because they were breaking fire code. I stood in line and silly me, drank an entire large Dunkin’ iced coffee by about 8am… so around 10 am when I was still only half a block to the studio in a line that was stopped and with no information about what was going on in the studio, I thought I was going to die. I almost peed my pants. And for what? I knew this line kept going and going for what seemed like forever. It was crazy to believe that all these people are non-union. Doing the things I’m doing, feeling the disappointment I’m feeling.

Finally around 11am… 4 hours of standing and waddling round the block… we finally make it to the door. 2 people in front of us, waiting for the monitors to let us into the building. Not onto the studio floor. Just into the building. When a flood of people rush out of the building saying they were in one of the many extra holding rooms that wasn’t the main holding room and they were cut. They weren’t going to be seeing anyone else and they encouraged us to send a headshot, resume and reel to the tour audition email…

4 hours of standing. At that point, I was over it. I needed a bathroom ASAP. I also needed Chicken and Waffles and a Mimosa. So, I at least got those things done!

There are tons of stories online about what the call was like and everyone has pretty much concluded that the call was absolutely ridiculous… especially because that was only the open singer call… the same type of thing happened the very next day for the dancer call. Maybe it’s a call to action to create a better system for actors of all union affiliations? Maybe it’s just a funny story I get to tell about the great horror at Pearl Studios for the Hairspray Non-Union Tour Open Singer Call… But I do not this was not and will not be the only atrocity to happen at Pearl Studios… Coincidentally, the Hairspray call happened on almost exactly the 1 year anniversary of the Pearl Studio mystery pooper. There was someone around this time last year that was leaving special packages in the middle of holding rooms (that’s right, on multiple occasions), most notably, the Magic Mike ECC holding room… Pretty sure Channing Tatum posted about it on Instagram when it happened.

So, I don’t know much, but I do know that in the words of Gwen Stefani… “This sh*t is BANANAS!”

XOXO,

Texas Jess

P.S.– Also, tonight I am flying home to Texas! I’m going a full week at home and I couldn’t be more excited. I think time at home is going to be a game changer. I need some space from the city and the rats and the densely populated everything when we’re in the middle of a health crisis… I’m excited about some open space and fresh air to reset!