Wendy was an aspiring actress. She moved to New York when she was 19 and spent two years trying to get a break into showbiz. She desperately wanted to be a stage actress, with the respect and professionalism that is admired throughout the entertainment world. But New York, just like LA is filled with aspiring actresses, all vying for the same roles.
It wasn’t that Wendy wasn’t attractive. As a tall brunette, 36c, tomboyish frame, off-the-farm fresh good loks, Wendy definitely turned her fair share of heads as she walked down the street. On most days she wore her hair up, especially on auditions as she wanted to be as versatile as possible. It was on her current audition that she realized just how versatile she’d have to be. She had told her temp agency she couldn’t come into work and took the subway to an off-off-off (might as well been in Jersey) Broadway theater.
The ad for the audition didn’t say too much about the production and none of her friends had ever heard of the theater, but she was desperate to get some performances under her belt so she would be taken more seriously at other auditions. As she walked up to the theater she noticed several of the other actresses – all attractive, various ages, various sizes. It was the nature of an open call, all of these women were desperate on some level to perform.
Wendy signed in with the assistant over seeing the group and tried to get some information from him regarding the nature of the play, what roles were open, anything, but all the assistant would say is “the director will give you all the information you need.” He then handed her a form to fill out for the director to look at during the audition.
Wendy took a seat and started going over the form. Most of the questions were what was to be expected: name, date of birth, experience, but some of them were a bit odd: Are you a virgin?, Have you ever done a nude scene?, Would you be adverse to doing a nude scene for a play?
She hesitated and decided that it wasn’t like it was a movie, it was a play in an out of the way theater that no one would ever see. So she indicated she would be willing to do a nude performance.
The auditions were moving quick. Most women went to the stage and returned minutes later rushing out of the theater. When they called Wendy’s name she took a deep breath and walked down the hallway and onto the stage. There were maybe 8 people sitting in the front row. One of them flipped through a stack of papers.
“What is your name, honey?”
“Wendy, Wendy Carlson.”
“Ah, here you are,” he said as he plucked on piece of paper from the small pile. “Let me see, it says here you’ve only done amateur productions with one bit part at the Tyler Theater.”
“That is correct.”
“It also says here that you are willing to perform nude.”
“Uh,” Wendy hesitated.
“Well, are you or aren’t you?”
(more…)