A Different Kind of Auditioning
But being prepared is still the key to making a good first impression.
Just like actors show off their skills in the audition room, other artists and creatives have their own ways of showcasing talents to prospective theaters, directors, or employers. These interviews can be just as anxious and nerve-racking, especially if you aren’t as prepared as you could be.
In a bonus episode for Why I’ll Never Make It, Adam Stocker is a Broadway costumer who shares a story from his junior year in college. He recounts an interview he had for what would’ve been his first internship. However, from the moment the phone interview began, Adam was caught off-guard and just trying to keep up…
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Adam Stocker: So I was anticipating a phone call from Santa Fe Opera. And my first mistake was not paying attention to time zones. At the time I was in Michigan, and they were in Santa Fe, New Mexico calling me. And I didn’t pay attention in the email to the time zone in which the phone call would take place. So they called me in the middle of class. Luckily it was a theater class. So I was like, I’m hopping out for a minute.
“Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Kim from Santa Fe Opera.”
“Oh, I thought the meeting was at blah, blah, blah time.”
“And that is the time here.”
“Oh my God. Okay. Of course I can read and remember that.”
Obviously, I had to submit a resume and portfolio and stuff. So she’s going over my resume and portfolio, and she asked me this question that I was so unprepared for, and who can ever prepare you for whatever questions come up in an interview? I think it’s insane.
But she picked out a costume and she was like, “Can you tell me , can you tell me about the process of making this costume?” It was a costume that I had made. And oh my God, I said, “Well, I cut the costume out and then I sewed it together…”
Patrick Oliver Jones: That’s all you said?
Adam Stocker: Right. Silence on the phone. She was like, “Okay, and so what kind of machine did you use?” And I was like — oh my God — I left out every detail that she had anticipated. Yep, every detail and I was like, “I use this kind of machine and I stitched it this way.” I used the word placket probably, cause that sounded professional at the time.
Patrick Oliver Jones: That sounds very important.
Adam Stocker: It’s where you put all your buttons on your shirts, the button placket. And of course I did not get that job at Santa Fe, and she was nice enough on the phone of course. It was my junior year of college, so it was gonna be my first internship.
Patrick Oliver Jones: So whenever she made the phone call, did you just have to leave class and start doing the interview?
Adam Stocker: Yeah, I just left.
Patrick Oliver Jones: So that’s another reason why you weren’t ready at all?
Adam Stocker: Oh my, no, because I didn’t know how to read, I guess. It’s like you read the time and you’re like, yeah, whatever time zone that is. It’s my time zone.
Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, I can be honest with the email that I sent you about this interview. We’re recording this on a Saturday, but I wrote in [that email] Tuesday, June 4th. I mean the June part was right, but Tuesday is not Saturday. So even though I know the days of the week, I can still write something that is completely wrong.
(Actually, not much of that email was correct. Adam and I were going to have an in-person interview, yet I sent him all this info for a Zoom interview and how to set things up on his end.)
Adam Stocker: Yep. And I didn’t correct you at all.
Patrick Oliver Jones: No, you didn’t.
Adam Stocker: I was like I guess we’re just doing a zoom interview. Okay. Whatever.
Patrick Oliver Jones: Right. I mean, the number of times that I’ve made a mistake in those emails. Because obviously, I’m meeting people for the first time or maybe they’re friends of mine, it doesn’t matter, but I always try to give them as much information as possible. And sometimes I give either too much or not enough…or I make a typo mistake with a date. So these things happen. It’s these little things.
Now you’d talked about handing over a portfolio or submitting your portfolio for this job. And is that work that you did while you were getting your BFA or what you were doing?
Adam Stocker: Yep. At that time, my portfolio was just like stuff from my BFA.
Patrick Oliver Jones: And since you’re not a designer per se, then what does your portfolio look like?
Adam Stocker: It looks like pictures of the costume done in pretty lighting by the lighting designer during the show. And then it’s the costume splayed open or really specific detail shots. I’ll straight up, turn it inside out. Put it on the dress form like that and snap some detail shots. And then people can see, “Oh, that’s how you finished it. Oh, that’s the seam. You know how to do right technique.”
Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah. It’s a very different way to audition for a job.
Adam Stocker: Yep. My portfolio is like a printed out PowerPoint, essentially. Like, here you go, there’s a bunch of photos and they are grainy.
Patrick Oliver Jones: And so you continue to do that, like update your portfolio?
Adam Stocker: No, you’ve seen my website. I haven’t updated it since 2017 or 2018 probably.
Patrick Oliver Jones: …you had an entire pandemic.
Adam Stocker: I know. Well, here’s the thing. When the shows do not open, I cannot put the photos out in public. So everything I had made for basically the last year and a half [leading up to the pandemic], which inarguably was like the Renaissance of my career up to this point — I was just making amazing things for Broadway and off-Broadway and music artists, like tours — I could never post any of them cause they either didn’t make it or they shut down. But like, oh my God, I had this whole pandemic to do a whole lot of nothing.
Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, that’s fine. Just start cutting and stitching.
Adam Stocker: Cut it out, sew it together. Done. Easy.
Patrick Oliver Jones: That’s all you do. I think that’s worth $18 an hour.
Adam Stocker: (laughing) That IS worth $18 an hour. You’re right. You’re right.
Learn more about Adam Stocker (and our conversation on the relatively low pay for Broadway costumers) in his main interview on WINMI, and see his non-updated website as well. You can also follow him and his costuming journey on Instagram.
Patrick Oliver Jones is an actor and podcaster (and writer/editor of this Medium blog). Follow his efforts of trying to “make it” in this business through his website or YouTube channel.
