Letters to Aaron Sorkin

Just a little Q...

When do you keep an idea to yourself so it can percolate and grow, and when do you talk it about it with others so it can get some fresh air and new perspectives?

Best, 

Laura

The scene:

I go to hear a casting director speak. I've actually met her before and she cast me in a project, but the audition was so in and out that I wouldn't have recognized her if I saw her on the street. Or probably even in a casting office. She works in tv.

Someone asks, "What wows you in an audition?"

She says, "I don't need wow, I just need it to work."

Silence.

"I don't need to see range. I need to see 4 lines as a coked out drug dealer. I don't care if you can do Shakespeare, too."

I  look around the room. Most people get it. A few look like she just stepped on the neck of their teacup lhasapooaua. They smile to recover quickly.

They want her to KNOW. What They Can DO. What she needs to know is that they can do this one thing, and do it flawlessly. She needs a high functioning and reliable cog to fit into an established machine.

And now I've gone and kicked the lhasapooaua. I've said "cog." But I like this word, and I actually take great comfort in it. Because what it implies is that if I am the selected cog, it's pretty easy for me to know what my job is, know what need I am filling, and then go serve the piece in that way. 

I can take my Shakespeare elsewhere. Where it is needed. And serve something else.

Best, 

Laura