"The Audition" from Ron Giles TV Stories

TV Stories is a compilation of interesting people and incidents from my 35 years in Television. The following is an excerpt from this book I have been working on since 2007.  This story happened in Cincinnati, Ohio, at WCPO-TV where I was Executive Producer of Programming, 1974-1977.  It is about an audition that I was holding to uncover "kid talent" for an upcoming production that the General Manager wanted to undertake.

Although we felt that to find the “right” boy and girl leads we would have to go to New York agents, we wanted to use local talent if possible. I arranged a Saturday Audition for adolescents, ages eleven to fifteen and asked my casting agent, Art, to fill out the schedule, 15 minutes at a time for as long as it took. 

The auditions took place in our Green Room and were to be recorded on videotape by our videographer, Denny.  Each candidate would come prepared to present a reading of their choosing, then we (me and them) would do some improvisational acting, and finally, we would read a dramatic passage from “The Velveteen Rabbit,” a 1922 story about a stuffed rabbit who wants to become a real rabbit.

We began at 10:00 in the morning and saw a tremendous number of children, all scrubbed and perky.  Although it was tiring, I was having a good time interacting with these young minds, similar in age to those Junior High students that I had as a history teacher which seemed like eons ago, but in fact there was only ten years separation my class room days.

At Art’s urging, we kept the parents out of the audition room.  Occasionally, I would make an appearance in the lobby, a “walk through” as Art phrased it, so that the parents could see that I wasn’t a pervert, but was instead a warm, witty human TV Producer.  Art, who was a jovial man, entertained the parents, primarily mothers, keeping them away from me and their offspring.

As the clock approached two in the afternoon, we had the last two children –  two boys from the Parker family, which Art described as the best theatrical family in the area – the Parker family with a large number of children from two marriages, three of which as children were involved in the theater scene in Cincinnati.  I was seeing Pippin Parker and his brother Britten Parker.

Pippin and Britten were by far the best I had seen that day.  Both had obviously benefitted from theatrical training, but both were too mature for the envisioned male lead.  Their voices had changed and they were getting muscular as young boys do on their way to manhood.  Of course, we did not disclose our decision then, but I knew that we had to find someone of their caliber but only aged twelve or thirteen.

We had worked our way through the entire list.  Denny and I were very tired, but felt that we had been privileged to see such talent and hope in the young people that we had met, even though I knew we had not seen anyone that fit the lead roles.

Art came in to the Green Room.

“Ron,” Art asked cautiously, “can you take one more candidate?”

“Did someone who cancelled show up?  Who is it?” I asked.

“You’re not going to believe this, but it’s another Parker, a girl who came with her brothers and mother.  The Mom is not pressing me for her to audition for you, it’s the kid herself who wants to read for you.”

I couldn’t turn that down.  Somebody who knows what they want and is not afraid to ask for it deserves a look. Denny was already turning his gear back on before I answered Art.  He knew what I was going to say.

“Send her in,” I said smiling.

Soon Art brought in just the cutest girl I had seen that day.  “Ron, this is Sarah. And Sarah, that’s Ron who will be reading with you and Denny, who will be taping the audition.” 

She strode over to us and confidently extended her hand to me and said, “Thank you for seeing me,” and then moved on to shake hands with Denny.  The room was hers.

Sarah was nine years old, wearing a casual dress with white anklets and canvas shoes.  Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail.  Physically, she was small, making her appear younger than she was.  I knew that she was too young for the role, but wanted to go ahead with the audition.

We got down to business following the same procedure as I had with the others.  Sarah had prepared a reading, which means she had planned to jump into the audition even though her mother had not signed her up.

We turned to improvisation.  I started out easy on her.  “Let’s say I go to the zoo and you are the animals I see, but you can speak to me.  Ready?”

We went through the elephant, and the lioness and she was doing a lot more with the animals physically and intellectually than I expected so I upped my game and went to the peacock and asked about her physical beauty.

“I like my colors, there are so many,” she cooed as she moved smoothly, to a sideways position. ”Can you see them all?”

“Yes,” I answered her.  “You must feel sorry for your sisters, the poor sparrows, they are so drab and not beautiful like you.”

“Oh, I think we are all equally beautiful, but sometimes it’s hard for our eyes to see the prettiness of others,” she counseled.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a big smile cross Denny’s face.  Sarah not only held character, but gave the peacock a depth which was unexpected.  Had it been me, I would have feigned sadness and pity for the poor dingy sparrows.

“Aren’t you jealous of the Owl who has eyes in the front of his head?”

Sarah dipped her head slowly and moved her shoulders fluidly, adding physicality to her portrayal of the peacock.  “We all have what we were given.  And…look what I have.” She took three slow steps forward with pointed toes, elegantly, like a dancer and then stopped, posing.

“Terrific,” I smiled, breaking exercise.  “Let’s turn to a reading using the Velveteen Rabbit.”

Once again, she surprised me with the use of her voice and the emotion she could produce on the spot, plus she was reading material that many eleven year olds would stumble through.  Sarah was wonderful, but she looked seven, and simply could not be cast in the role we had envisioned.

Both Denny and I were effusive in our praise of her performance in the audition.  I escorted her out to the Lobby where her Mother and brothers were waiting.  Sarah went to her brothers and they huddled to talk about their experiences in the audition, leaving her Mother with Art and I.

“Sarah,” I said in a low but enthusiastic voice to Mrs. Parker, “was the best I saw today.  She is very talented at this age and will only get better and better.  I know you are getting coaching for your other children, and that is expensive, but Sarah is exceptional.  Unfortunately, she is simply too young for what we need as a central character, but if we go forward with this project, I will make sure we will have a role for her.”

Mrs. Parker was gracious and understanding.  I thought about asking Bob to reconsider his concept so that we could write a script around Sarah, using a different story-line, but the whole idea got placed on a back burner when the major department store in Cncinnati, Pogue’s, wanted to sponsor a Thanksgiving Day Parade, and I was placed in charge of the production.

I never forgot the little girl, Sarah, who grew to become quite a star as Sarah Jessica Parker.

“Annie,” Broadway Production, 1979.

Sarah Jessica Parker (age 14) in the lead role of Annie.  Sarah succeeded Andrea McCardle who was originally cast as “Annie.” A year earlier, Sarah and four of her siblings were in “Annie” at a St. Louis regional theater.

1984 – “Footloose,” starring Kevin Bacon.

Sarah Jessica Parker as “Rusty”

John Lithgow as “Rev. Shaw Moore”

Lori Singer as “Ariel Moore”

  

“Sex and the City,” HBO Series 1998 – 2004

Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw

Awards -- Emmy, Golden Globe

“Time Magazine” one of the best 100 TV Series of all time (2007)