AUDITION COMPETION

Leading British and US directors of theater and film have expressed dismay that there are no longer the places for actors, writers and directors to learn and practice their craft. No longer are there well subsidized regional and community theatres, nor repertories of many plays a season for the young to learn their craft on the job, after or even instead of drama schools and universities.

In the web's present form, web auditions are no step to remedy this but it is an opportunity to work with new, very challenging, material, and know theater and film supermos, who are usually all too distant, will listen and comment on those selected. These will be featured on the site with the comments to create an online international high calibre acting workshop open to all.

THE RULES

• Submit, on audio cassette, no more than 2 minutes of any Peter Barnes play or monologue. You can do all the parts. It is limited to Barnes' work because it will be new to many of you, new to many of those you will audition for 'real time'. One complaint of the judges who have set through countless auditions is that actors choose the same old pieces and fail the audition by boring the directors and casting agents.

• Mail the cassette to Audition Competition,Write On Cue, 29 Whitcomb Street, London WC2H 7EP, UK . NO EMAILED FILES ACCEPTED. Cassettes will not be returned unless a return envelope and postal voucher is included.

• Competitors may include a photograph and a fifty-word biography. An additional short comment on the future of theater and film, bearing in mind the limited opportunity to practice the craft, is encouraged.

• Deadline for this first competition: ongoing entries

THE RESULTS

• The top 20 judged most interesting will have a selection of their tape, their photograph, biography and comment featured on this site. The judges will comment on the top 20 which will also be posted on the site.

• There are no real prizes, maybe we will send you a CD ROM of the site - but that is not the point. It is to provide an unpreceented acting workshop forum that is worldwide, providing talent access to otherwise very exclusive theater and film personalities. It gives talent the chance to hear what criteria those at the top really use in casting.

There will be a preselection before the tapes are sent to the final judging panel that, at present, includes international director and actor Simon Callow (author of several leading books on acting); leading London TV and film casting director Angela Grosvenor; teacher at the Actor's Center for professional actors, Diana Fairfax; and, for the first competition, Peter Barnes.

We hope this will be the first of many competitions that will develop into online acting workshops when technology allows. Your continued support and interest are valued.

Copyright Technofilm 1997