How long was it before you got the part?

Question:How many years of acting experience and waiting did it take for you personally to get the role you wanted? or are you still waiting? I mainly speaking of theater not really film or tv but I'll take both. I just want to get a general idea I myself had played several featured characters but never a leading role except for once.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: How many years of acting experience and waiting did it take for you personally to get the role you wanted? or are you still waiting? I mainly speaking of theater not really film or tv but I'll take both. I just want to get a general idea I myself had played several featured characters but never a leading role except for once.

I started acting when I was eleven and got the role of Chava in "Fiddler on the Roof" when I was 20 and the role of Emily in "Our Town" when I was 22. So it took me about 9 years before I started getting leads.

However it will be different for everyone. For me what made the difference was I started to direct theatre myself and began to get a better idea of what directors were looking for when casting and how to make a better impression at auditions. Some people will get cast in leading roles at their very first audition and some people will never get the lead. All you can really do is train and train and try to be a well rounded, dedicated actor. However remember that the most talented person in the world could audition for a show and still not be exactly what that director is looking for. Let the world of acting be a journey for you and enjoy every role you are lucky enough to play. There are some people who not only don't get leads but never get cast at all. It sounds as if your journey is off to a good start.

I am currently rehearsing for Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

I first auditioned for it in 1987.

I guess I am finally old enough.

I was not picky about the role, I just wanted to act in Western films. When I was forty, I did just that, and continued for ten years. until my health forced me to retire. You also do not make it clear that you are speaking of non professional stage acting. Heavens, I began to get the roles I wanted right out of college. By the time I was forty I was getting the plumbs, like OSCAR in the odd couple and Johnathon in Arsenic and Old Lace and Petruccio in Taming of the Shrew.

I started to get roles I "wanted" while I was still in school. However, I think of roles I want as different from those very special "dream" roles that you would die to play. Of course when I started trying out for shows I wanted to get cast and not only get cast, but get cast in a prominent role - and that began to happen in school after a year or so.

There have only been 2 "dream" roles so far that I really, really wanted to play - and had to hunt out auditions for... and was fortunate enough to actually get to play - as much of a long shot as it had been.

The first dream was was the Witch in Into the Woods. I adored the show and wanted to play the Witch so badly it burned. Though, I would have been extremely happy in any role in that show. I was still a teen and knew my school would never attempt that show. A community theatre was holding auditions for it and I went... and didn't get cast. A year later or so (when I was 16), I joined a summer youth rep theatre company. They were doing Into the Woods. I worked really hard on my audition piece and auditioned. There were 50+ people who auditioned and many have worked with the director before and/or were private voice students of the director - and I thought they definitely had a leg up on me.

I got called back... however, it wasn't for either role I really wanted (the Witch or the Baker's Wife) - but my best friend did (that hurt). I got called back for Cinderella, which is a great role, but not one I thought really suited me. However, the audition song I used really was more appropriate for showing of my Cinderella style of singing than something that would have shown I could have been good for the Witch.

Since I wanted the role of the Witch so badly, I did something I probably shouldn't have done, but I went to the callbacks for the
Witch and as the actresses who were actually called were entering, I slipped over to the director and asked if I could please sing for that role as well. The director seemed really put off, but reluctantly agreed, but I felt sure at this point I had lost any chance of getting cast at all.

I had nothing to lose, so I got to sing one of the Witch's songs and show that I could have a much more legit sound. Then the director let everyone go except for 2 people she kept to hear them do the rap that the Witch does in the first act. I was not one of the people she kept.

I felt sure at this point that I had blown all chances of being cast in any role.

When the cast list came out, my best friend and I went out to look at it together when no one else was there. I couldn't find my name. I saw hers first, and she had been cast as the Baker's Wife. There was a pang of jealousy in my stomach when I saw that. And still I couldn't find my name. Eventually, I did find my name under the role of the Witch. It didn't register. I remember thinking "Witch? What's Witch? What role is that?"

It was a long walk back to the subway. My best friend and I were sort of in stunned shock for half of the walk, when suddenly the reality of things seemed to hit us simultaneously. We both stopped and screamed and jumped up and down. It was such elation and amazement.

I had never felt that way over getting a role in my life. Not even when I got my first female lead at a huge theatre. Nothing has compared to getting the Witch in Into the Woods - and I'm not sure anything ever will.

The other dream role I wanted was D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers. This is a role, too, that I would have died to play - I knew I could do it well and was born to play it. There was a big problem, though. I'm female. No theatre in their right mind would not cast the iconic role of D'Artagnan as male.

I had been studying stage combat for years, and as an actress never really got to use my skills in the context in a play. Usually I would perform in fight demos and exhibitions, but I had never been cast in a show that required my character to sword fight - or throw any punches or anything interesting like that.

Then, I found out that a small professional theatre company not too far from me was going to do a production of The Three Musketeers. Of course I had to go audition. However, they weren't doing a full production. They were doing a 4-actor version of the epic. They were casting 2 men and 2 women. Perfect!

The story of getting cast was not nearly dramatic as it was with Into the Woods, so I'll just cut to the chase and say that I got the role of D'Artagnan. Not only did I get to play D'Artagnan, but I got to play the Queen, Anne of Austria, as well, which was really cool - as well as a few other roles, since it was just 4 actors playing all of the characters in book. It was an amazing show and very well received. There were 6 fights in the show (which made me happy - lol). And as much adventure backstage as there was on stage (with something like 60+ quick costume changes for all of us during the show.)

Right now, I'm about to go into rehearsals for a show that wasn't exactly a dream show for me, but was a show that I really really wanted to be a part of. The first show in a while that I felt really strongly about, so I was very happy when I got cast. Again, it was one of those auditions that just seemed awkward and I was certain I wasn't going to get cast, but then I got the role I wanted... so... you never know what will happen in this business. I am constantly surprised.

Don't lose heart. You will start getting roles you want. If you're in school, a lot of times the larger roles will go to the older students - it may not always be fair, but that's usually how it is. Just keep auditioning... as much as we want it to be about talent, that's not always the case. It's a bit of a numbers game, though, too... the more you audition the more of a chance you will get cast in something and eventually you will get lead roles.

Break a leg!