There's not a whole lot going on professionally for me. Last night I had to turn down an audition for a student film because it wasn't backed by the Screen Actors Guild. Such is life.

This past Thursday, I attended a combined Equity audition for Off-Broadway theaters. I was very excited about this opportunity, published in Back Stage.

I had heard about musical theater auditions--people lining up at 5am to assure they would be seen--but I didn't realize that people would do that for straight theater too! That's right, at least two people were there Thursday at 5am ... When did I get there? 8am, when Equity opens its doors. And was I seen? Well...

The line was very long when I arrived, nearly stretching a long block. If I was going to be seen, it was gonna be as an alternate, for sure. When my end of the line snaked its way into the building, we eventually hear after 126 slots had been filled, that they were now moving on to alternates. Should I leave? I thought. I stayed, mainly because it sounded as if alternates did have a chance, because they said they got through #58 on the alternate list for the same auditions the day before. I didn't really have a concept of where I'd fall on the alternate list, so I stuck it out and signed up for a slot.

I got #57! Wow! So if they called 58 alternate names the day before, there's an okay shot of my getting in! I left for work and returned to the audtion about 4:30pm.

They were at #42, and when I heard that, I uttered an "Oh Good!" While it seemed like a longshot, I thought that there may be a chance.

The end of the day fast approached. As alternate names were called, you would hear a relieved actor jump up, lucky to get an audition. The last alternate of the day was called, and she felt privileged to make it in. Then the runners of the audition called all of the alternates together, and spoke to us about our fates.

They said that if the end of the audition runs ahead, they will try to squeeze in some alternates. They read down the list to see who was still there.

Five names were called. They stopped calling names. These were the five alternates who could get an auditon possibly.

And I would have been Number 6.

I left four headshots for the four theaters there, and I left, not too disappointed, but more feeling that I Had Learned, and if I really want to compete for these few Equity slots, rising at 4:30am is not too unrealistic.

When I had first arrived at that long line at 8am, the ones in the front were sitting on portable fold-up chairs.