Seattle Repertory Theatre -- Command Performance -- Local Talent Lines Up For One Three-Minute Chance With The New Director

In the decidedly un-green Green Room at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, actors waited nervously for their chance to audition.

To ease the strain and anxiety, some did vocal exercises. Others paced or flexed to limber up. A few quietly ran through prepared monologues. And some just sank into silent meditation - perhaps chanting a quick prayer or two.

This week tensions were running higher than usual in the Green Room as scores of expectant local thespians streamed in for the most important audition session of the year - perhaps the decade.

Actors each had three minutes or so to strut their talent before the new Rep artistic director, Sharon Ott, and several of her associates.

That meant three minutes to snag a "callback" for a role in the coming Rep season. Three minutes to make an indelible impression. Or at the least, three minutes to stand out in a crowded field of hopeful ingenues and leading men, character actors and utility players.

And we do mean crowded. In two "open call" auditions for Actors Equity Association members early this week, and two more days set aside for nonunion thespians, Ott was scheduled to have a look-see at nearly 300 actors.

More than 100 others read for her last month, summoned to try out for specific roles in two scheduled Rep productions, "The Shaugraun" and "An Ideal Husband." And more will be brought in soon to do their thing for Mary Zimmerman, the hot Chicago director coming to the Rep this winter to stage "The Notebooks of Leonardo DaVinci."

"We're seeing everyone we can," says Ott, whose gracious manner prevailed during the seven-hour audition days, despite an allergy attack that made her congested and hoarse. "I'm also going out a lot, attending a lot of shows. That's part of my job, to familiarize myself with people."

Ott's new regime represents a rare opportunity for Seattle's growing legions of about 600 Equity actors, and 400 or so nonunion performers, to get an in with the largest, best-paying, most prestigious resident theater in the region.

"The perception is always there's never enough work for local people," observes actress-writer Susy Schneider, who performed an original monologue for Ott. During the 17 years Ott's predecessor Daniel Sullivan ran the Rep, Schneider notes, the theater kept a core company of a dozen or so Seattle actors busy. But the Rep often looked beyond the city - to New York and Los Angeles - for other hires.

"It seemed things were kind of stratified," says Schneider, whose last Rep gig was "Marvin's Room" in 1992. "Sharon Ott's arrival represents a chance to dust off your best material and maybe score something. We all would love to, because this is a wonderful place to work."

Ott's interest in large-cast and experimental productions also excites local performers, according to veteran stage actor Brian Faker. "She should be a breath of fresh air," he says.

Though David Silverman cobbles together a decent living acting at Cabaret de Paris, the Seattle Children's Theatre and other venues, he, too, grabbed the chance to audition for Ott this week. A former chairman of the local Actors Equity branch, he reports a lot of positive buzz about the new honcho.

"Many of the people who felt they should have been working at the Rep all along are pleased she's here, and hopeful she'll hire locally," he says.

"For years, they watched while the Rep brought in people who weren't necessarily as good or better than our own talent. I even know Seattle actors who auditioned for the Rep in New York, because they thought they'd be more saleable with a Manhattan address."

But like Sullivan, Ott will keep a New York casting service on retainer. And she expects some visiting directors to bring in performers they like from other cities. (The lineup for August Wilson's "Seven Guitars," for instance, will feature as much of the original Broadway cast as possible.)

In her previous job running the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Ott also fielded complaints from disgruntled actors who felt she favored out-of-towners over localites.

So far in Seattle, however, she seems impressed with the "fabulous" talent ranks and "will look here first for what we need." She has already assigned 1997-'98 season roles to such well-known pros as Laurence Ballard, Peter Silbert, Suzanne Bouchard, Katie Forgette, R. Hamilton Wright, Sarah Brook, Larry Paulsen and Eric Ray Anderson, and expects to offer contracts to numerous others.

The fact that visiting directors Larry Carpenter ("The Shaugraun") and Stephen Wadsworth ("An Ideal Husband") also approved of the native talent impressed her. "I showed these two very skeptical East Coast guys some people we wanted to use," recalls Ott, "and they had no problems at all with them - not even any serious questions."

Sitting with Ott during this week's auditions, advising her on actors she has never seen before, were some who know the local talent pool thoroughly: Kurt Beattie, Ott's new second in command and the former head of Empty Space Theatre, and director-teacher Christine Sumption, a new Rep associate. Also on hand: Peggy Scales, a longtime Rep staffer who seems to be on a first-name basis with every actor in town.

It was Scales who warmly ushered each auditioner into the Poncho Forum rehearsal hall, to meet Ott and her team.

Doing a command performance for a line of people you want desperately to impress can obviously be an excruciating ordeal. But Ott defused the tension by welcoming each actor personally, laughing at jokes, and generally offering praise and encouragement rather than the proverbial poker face.

"It was one of the most mellow auditions I've ever done," assessed Schneider, after her turn. "A bunch of us hung around outside, and we were all impressed with how nice and respectful she seems."

Whether that kind reception translates into getting a job, however, is something else. Well-versed and interested in the classics, Ott expressed disappointment that few actors used selections from Shakespeare and other classic texts. She was sorry more ethnic minority actors, especially Asian Americans, did not audition. And she sounded more likely to hire many different actors occasionally, rather than supply any with steady work.

If you want guarantees and security in life, however, you don't go on the stage. As Silverman wryly noted, "It's always the same in this business. The people who work, work. And there are always as many others whose hopes and desires are a far cry from reality."

At least in the early days of Sharon Ott's Rep leadership, hope springs anew.