Getting Audition Advice from a Professional

It’s nice to call yourself an actor, but unless you learn how to audition, it’s unlikely that anyone else will ever call you one.

Gerry Appel, director of the Playhouse Acting Academy at Cranbury Road’s East Brunswick Cultural Arts Center, understands that better than anyone. Having spent several decades in professional theater, Appel understands just how important it is for actors to learn auditioning techniques.

He’s also met the right people to teach those techniques, and Wednesday, April 27, one of them paid a visit to Appel’s Playhouse Acting Academy students. Paul Russell, a professional casting director and author of “Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor,” spoke with Appel’s students at a closed door Q&A session. Appel hopes to make the event a regular occurrence at the academy.

“Paul and I met while performing in a Summer Stock show, 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,' at Shawnee Playhouse in the early 1980s,” said Appel.  “We did a few more shows together at that same venue.  After that, our paths went in two different directions.  Paul concentrated on learning what he could about casting for theatre, TV and film, eventually opening his own casting agency.  I continued to perform, direct, produce and teach theatre.”

In the almost 30 years that have passed since Russell started auditioning actors, he’s worked for such production companies and networks as 20th Century Fox, HBO, CBS, NBC and Warner Brothers, and for numerous Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional plays. In addition to his book, which is widely beloved by actors, he is a contributing columnist to the “Casting Cues” column in Back Stage magazine.

“One of my students goes back to re-read Paul's book before every audition,” Appel said. “He was especially looking forward to meeting Paul. The students have been bouncing different questions off me.  And, they are also prepping monologues for Paul to hear.  It is good to get the opinion of someone with so much professional experience in casting.”

 The event was not open to the public, and was only to students and prospective students of the acting academy.

Appel said he plans to arrange additional visits from Russell, or even asking him to teach a seminar or class. “In the future, I will open up future seminars and classes to the public,” Appel said. “The purpose of this Q&A is to allow my students a taste of what information Paul has to offer.  If this is a good mix, we will consider a seminar or class for future sessions.”

For more information on Appel’s Playhouse Acting Academy, contact Playhouse 22 at , or visit them online at www.playhouse22.org.