The Short List...

...is a good list to be on. You cannot book every job. In fact, you won't book most. But it is important to aim for a callback each and every time you audition.

Lately, I've found myself on the "short list" -- that shorter stack of headshots that gets re-used for callbacks. This stack has a slightly longer lifespan than the huge stack that gets thrown out or shredded right away. Is it preferable to remaining "on file," destined to stay locked away in a filing cabinet (people still use those?) until there is truly a right role for you? I'm not quite sure.

While printing some headshots recently, I asked the kind and helpful man working with the printing service -- isn't it a little depressing knowing that most of the beautiful, high quality prints you help actors create will ultimately end up in the trash alongside Kate Mantolini lunch takeout? Or at most, in the recycling bin? He had never thought about it that way. Oops. But the truth is, it's completely okay with me if 95 of my prints get thrown out at some point, as long as I'm getting positive feedback along the way.

Recently, I was called back for Jerry Mitchell's production of "Hairspray" which will play at the Hollywood Bowl this summer. Though I didn't book the show (hey, there are only a few "Nicest Kids In Town") I did get to meet and dance with Jerry Mitchell himself. Should our paths cross again in the future, however unlikely, I'll get to say -- remember me?

A couple weeks before, I found myself at the callbacks for the American Idiot First Broadway National Tour. Again, I didn't get the part at the end of the day. But I did have to learn new music quickly, and in the process, added a new song to my repertoire, one of which can be seen and heard here:

Vocal Audition from Gilli Messer on Vimeo.

I guess what I'm getting at is that callbacks function as the mini affirmations that I'm on the right track. There's no formula or roadmap for succeeding in this career I've chosen to try for awhile. None of this study for the LSAT, go to law school, pass the bar, get a job, etc. I can't check things off a list to make sure I'm doing the right thing. So for now, at least I know I'm doing something right, and am on an acceptable path. On the short list, on the long road, riding on the short bus...wait a second...