Guess I'm a Stage Mom Too!

The past week has been so exciting!! A little over a week ago my friend Marcie told me she had gotten an e-mail from her sister that an agent in the Twin Cities was looking for 10-11 year old boy for the lead role in the upcoming movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid. That book happens to be one of Noah's favorite books, so obviously I thought of him. I asked him if he would be okay if I sent in his photo. He was pretty skeptical, but said that was fine. The e-mail just requested the age, date of birth, height and weight and a photo. So I sent an e- mail with Noah's stats to the Laura Balfour agency. The next day I got a phone call from Laura confirming our e-mail because the casting company had called her asking her to do so. I didn't say anything to Noah because I didn't want to get his hopes up, but Monday morning (March 16th - my birthday) after he was already at school, I got the e-mail inviting him to audition the next Monday in Minneapolis. The e-mail said that he should bring a photo/resume if he has them - otherwise she'll take pictures.

Well, being the Stage Mom that I am, I decided that he had to present as a professional so I promptly made an appointment with my friend Mark Fitzgibbons (www.fitzphotostudios.com) to get a head shot done. He was kind enough to fit us in for a shoot on Tuesday morning. I had proofs online by Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday I had to make a selection. Man was that hard! They were all great pictures, but slightly different. Did we want a full smile, a serious pose or something in between? Did we want B & W or Color? Thank goodness for my Facebook friends who helped me narrow it down so I could make my final selection - which I will post when I get the low resolution photo that was part of my package.

The e-mail from the casting company (Lynn Blumenthal Casting www.lbcasting.com) included two scenes that Noah was going to have to perform at the audition. I felt like he could use some help preparing, so I contacted Kate Horvath, Education Director at the Duluth Playhouse (www.duluthplayhouse.org) and asked her for a recommendation of someone he could work with. She volunteered to work with him herself, so I made two appointments, for Wednesday and for Friday. Coincidentally on Wednesday she cast Noah in the Duluth Playhouse Summer Theater Intensive, Guys and Dolls, Jr.. Noah met with Kate on Wednesday, she gave him some suggestions. He practiced and by his meeting on Friday, he had his scenes memorized and they spent an hour together polishing them.

He worked on the scenes a little every day in his room. Monday was the big day. Kevin was coming home from Las Vegas at 12:10 p.m. and we were all (even Marianne our newest AFS daughter from Sweden) planning on heading down to Minneapolis for the audition. At about 11:00 a.m. I called to confirm that I could pick up the photos, which were all ready for me. About 11:30 a.m. I remembered that I had not put together a resume for him. Drat! Here I was spending all the money for professional photos, but he wasn't going to present completely professionally. So I did what all procrastinators do, I sat down at the computer and Googled "acting resume." I clicked on a link that said "Sample Acting Resumes" and found the one for "Child actor" and copied all of the text into a word document, changed it to reflect Noah's stats and his acting experience (all at the Duluth Playhouse) and printed it out. It looked GREAT!!

I printed two copies and started on the route to pick up everyone to head out of town. First I got Hannah and Noah at their school. Noah was bubbling over with excitement. His whole class had been pumping him up all day. He had gotten many good wishes and words of encouragement. Next we picked up Kevin from the airport (despite freezing rain his plane was on time). Kids were so happy to see him (he'd been gone since Friday). Then we stopped at Central High School to get Marianne. Our last stop heading out of town was at Fitz Photo Studio to get the comp cards - which looked so awesome!!

We made good time getting to the Cities. Eventhough our appointment wasn't until 5:00 p.m. and it was only 3:30, we went directly to the building the casting company was in. It was located in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis. We decided to go show Marianne a little of the city. We drove by the new Twins' stadium which is under construction. We drove downtown and showed her the Target Center, First Avenue, Hard Rock Cafe, Nicollet Mall and the IDS Center. She wanted to look at the Hard Rock Cafe shop, so we parked and walked by First Avenue and looked at all the bands on the wall. Hannah noted that Katy Perry was playing there the next day - too bad she's a little young for that venue. We went to the Hard Rock for drinks and apps. Marianne also looked in the gift shop. She ended up going home with the martini glass that came with her drink and lots and lots of photographs!

At about 4:30 we headed back to the casting company. When we got there a boy and his mother were leaving. Another boy and his mother were waiting to go in. We signed in and took our seat to wait. One of the staff (Matthew) came out and talked to us a little bit. Noah was very outgoing and chatted with him. Noah told him that he had memorized both scenes and Matthew told Noah that they hadn't usually been having people read the 2nd scene. The other boy went in and was there for about 10 minutes. When he left, they took Noah's sign in sheet, his photo and his resume and he went in to audition. We could clearly him reading the scene for the first time (we hadn't been able to hear the other boy at all). We heard the casting agent give him direction, including not to be so dramatic (ha-ha) and he did it again, and again, and again, and again. She was really working with him. Then we heard him starting the 2nd scene! We knew that meant she wanted to show more of him. They worked that scene a few times and he was done. He came out on top of the world. He had had so much fun!! Both Matthew and the casting agent, Lynn, came out and talked to us. She had so many good things to say. She told us he was clearly talented. She recommended that he take a class that would train him to perform on film versus on stage because she could tell he had stage skills, but he didn't really understand the difference. She said he was very smart (which we know) and that he was absolutely beautiful on camera. They had only had one other boy read the 2nd scene. They told us it had been a very long day with a lot of boys who did not have "it." She felt like she was searching through her haystack to find a needle, and Noah had been it. She said it was refreshing. It was so exciting for him and really for all of us. After we left Matthew came downstairs to watch for the last appointment of the day and we had a nice conversation with him before we left.

We went from there to dinner with Kevin's parents at Khan's Mongolian BBQ in Roseville, driving through the U of M campus to show Marianne. We had a great dinner and hit the road back to Duluth.

Who knows what, if anything will come out of this, but we had Noah's school conference today and even his teacher mentioned that his confidence-level is clearly up. He is standing up straighter. This was such a good thing for him. He had a goal, he worked towards it. He was prepared, he did his best and he felt good at the end. While I know he would be tickled pink to get a call-back, and of course any kind of role, even if we hear nothing more, it was all worth it to have this week!