I wanted to take a break this month from my top 10 lists to talk about pilot season. The phrase “pilot season” can be something super exciting or super scary, depending on actor’s experiences in the past. If you’ve always had fun during pilot season (like I have), you are usually excited when another pilot season is here. But if you’ve never really been a part of pilot season before or your last pilot season wasn’t good, you are probably thinking that this time is scary.
First of all, not all actors are ready to be a part of pilot season. I’m still shocked that I get to audition for new shows. If you aren’t at that level yet, don’t worry. Pilot season is amazing for you too, but for another reason. During pilot season, actors who usually audition for guest star parts are busy auditioning for pilots. And if you aren’t at the auditioning at guest star level yet, actors who normally audition for co-star parts are busy auditioning for those guest start parts leaving the co-star parts open for new actors! This is a win-win! So if you aren’t looking at series regular roles, focus on the other tv parts that other actors are too busy (or think they are too busy) for!
If you are auditioning for pilot season, it can be a bit overwhelming. There are so many rounds of auditions and if you get far enough, you pretty much have to sign away 7 years of your life even though you don’t know if you have the part yet (don’t worry, if you don’t get the part that contract is torn up). Casting director Marci Liroff wrote a great blog post breaking down the various types of audition steps there are for pilot season.
Instead of being overwhelmed, just try to take things one step and audition at a time. If you are getting a bunch of auditions at once, I highly recommend using Rehearsal 2 to memorize your lines (I previously mentioned that app in another post). I love using that app for any audition, but when you have multiple pages from multiple projects to work on, I think having them all in one place is easier than locating multiple scripts.
You also want to make sure that you are as prepared as possible for each audition. For the first step in pilot auditions (the pre-read), you usually have a few days notice about the audition. This is a pleasant change from the one day (or less) notice that you usually get for auditions. So take that time and do your research on the team behind the show. Make sure that you are off book (or as much off book as you can be). And you are usually given a copy of the entire pilot script, so make sure you read that so you understand the show and the role that the character you are auditioning for plays in the show.
When you have what can be a life-changing audition, it can be tough to not obsess over it. But it’s important to try to not think about it too much after the audition. I highly recommend scheduling something to do after the audition so you don’t just go home and do play-by-plays in your head on what happened in the room. This is something that I still struggle with, but it’s getting better. I’m leaving it all in the room and then trying to forget about it.
Finally, remember that not only does pilot season come year after year, many networks are not following the standard tv world calendar and pilots can audition at any time. So if this pilot season doesn’t go the way you want, there will always be another one. There are years that I’ve had multiple auditions for pilots and then the next year I have none. But maybe the next year I’ll make it to a new level in auditioning for pilots so I can’t let one pilot season get me down.
Do you have any tips or tricks that you use to survive pilot season? I’d love to hear them in the comments!