An Open Letter To This Weekend's Maude Auditioners

[Berg]

Dear Everybody Who Auditioned For Maudes This Weekend-

You guys nailed it. As a fellow who was understandably apprehensive about watching twelve straight hours of three minute character salads this weekend, I owe you a thank you to all of you for making those twelve hours pass not only quickly, but enjoyably. Well done.

There were a lot of bits I saw this weekend that I'll be laughing about for a long time: Ten Chains; Maya Angelou reading children's poetry; a man on the phone with his wife while he is parallel parking, but he is terrible at parallel parking and also he is a horse- these are classic bits, no bones about it. There's more, too- the loneliest TSA agent; a parade of characters slowly getting drunk; and the satisfyingly meta character "guy who only prepared racist Asian characters for his Maude audition who just realized that there's an Asian judge in the room." You guys put yourselves up for judgement for our amusement- just you, no back line, no help. Just three minutes of you doing something that's as brave as it is debasing. You played guitar, banjo, ukelele, and trombone. You sang, tap danced, and did handstands. One of you smeared mayonnaise on your face, an act of comedy so committed and so gross that still I stand in awe several days later. You did that for us, the Maude Committee, because you like UCB enough that you want to be on a house team there. For that, I thank you. It's awesome and heartwarming in the cheesiest of ways.

I know that those of you who didn't get callbacks were disappointed, not only in that you didn't get a callback, but in that you didn't get a letter saying as much. My apologies- that's on me. I simply didn't realize that's how things were done, and I'll make a note of that and see to it that that's changed in the future- by which I mean "I will plan on doing that, now that I'm aware that it's a thing that needs doing."

Even though it's a bummer not to be put on a house team, I encourage you all to remember that being on a Maude team is only one way to get involved at the theater. Space on Maude Night is very limited- monthly scheduling permits a maximum of six teams, which is a meager thirty six actors. Almost 350 people auditioned this weekend. 48 were called back. Fewer still will make it onto a Maude team. Maude Night simply isn't big enough to accomodate all of the insanely talented people who came out this weekend.

Obviously, there is a LOT of talent- there's never been an audition weekend I've sat in on where it's been so difficult to select which few will be called back. Normally it's cut and dried. We couldn't even call back all the people in our initial callback pile, for the simple reason that we only had the space for five hours on sunday night and we could only see 10 people an hour.

It was a classy problem to have, but it was still a problem. Here's my proposed solution, to you, the Maude auditioners of 2013:

Don't let not getting a callback or not being put on a team take the wind out of your sails. Stay involved. Put up a spank show. Bring a sketch to Not Too Shabby. Submit a team to Sketch Showdown. Come into my office hours and talk comedy with me. Find other people who auditioned this weekend. Form a group. Write stuff for yourself. Don't write? Find a writer you like who doesn't act. Keep doing comedy.

This isn't the end of the road for any of you- by virtue of the fact that you showed up this weekend, you are a part of the UCB community and that means you're family. Those of you who've had me as a teacher know how sincerely I mean that, and the rest of you will have to just take me at my word.

Thank you for coming out this weekend, you guys- and for making my marathon of audition watching an insanely enjoyable experience. I'm very much looking forward to next year.

Hugs,

-Alex "Berg" Berg, Artistic Director of UCB LA

[sourstuff]

Does that by any chance mean that Maude writing entrants did/will not get formal rejection letters either? I only ask so I can stop checking my gmail every 2 minutes.

[Berg]

We've not yet gone through and picked the writers who will be incorporated into Maude Night this year, but we will do so soon. When that happens, I will be sure to email you all and let you know!

[JPL]

On a similar note - will people who had Maude performer callbacks be informed if they didn't make the cut?

[Berg]

No, but we hope to post the final list of who has been selected to perform and write for Maude Night this year soon! Hopefully by the end of the weekend, possibly as soon as Friday afternoon.

[sourstuff]

Thanks for the info Alex. I'll resume my nail biting.