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>> KRISTINE: Hi, this is Kristine Oller. Welcome to The Actor's Library How-They-Did-It Success
Story newsletter. This issue features L.A. based actor, Antonie Knoppers, sharing the
bold moves he took to book a lead role in a play. Take it away, Antonie.
>> ANTONIE: I was in Holland in ’97 and I somehow met this Dutch casting director
and they said they were doing this two-person play that is an American play. And there are
not a lot of American plays that get done in Holland. It’s an older guy and a younger
guy. And the older guy was this huge star in Holland. It was sort of a vehicle for him
and they were casting the younger guy. I read the play and I was like, “Wow, it’s,
you know… It takes place in New York. It’s got a lot of Jewish elements and I’m Jewish.”
And I said “I think I have a leg up on this” so I said, “Could I get an audition?”
And I got an audition and I got a callback. They had several rounds because this was a
huge, big thing. And I noticed there were all these big TV stars. I made it to the final
round. It was between me and this other movie star and I was completely unknown. And the
movie star got it. And I totally understood, as disappointing as it was. And I ended up
moving back to New York. And about a year later, I got an audition
for the same play at Syracuse Stage. It was a director I had worked with before, Bob Moss.
I did the first round and got the callback and the author was there… or the playwright,
rather… of the play… at the callbacks. And that day, at the callbacks, I heard I
had booked it. I got to do the play. It was a great experience. I got good reviews and
I became friends with the playwright. And since then, the play has sort of been on my
radar because, you know, I feel quite confident doing the play.
Then I ended up moving to Los Angeles, and thought about producing at first. There’s
a well-known TV film actor, an older actor, that I’d become friends with and I thought,
“Hey, I would just produce it myself and do it with him at some theater to get exposure.”
That didn’t really get off the ground. Then about six or seven months ago, I was
at an audition at the Colony Theater for the Laguna Playhouse. They had auditions there.
And I noticed their season and I saw they were doing this play, Visiting Mr. Green.
And it wasn’t until six months later that I was like, I need them to know that I exist
and I want to really be proactive on this so I sent my headshot. Oh, no, I dropped off,
physically dropped off my headshot and resume, including, I believe, reviews of me in the
show. The casting director is not an in-house casting…
I mean, it is an in-house but she’s never there so it ended up in her mailbox but nothing
really came of it. I called repeatedly just to make sure I didn’t miss the auditions.
And it was sort of random… chaotic and they didn’t really know what was going on. I
called my agent to say, “Listen, I explained the whole history of the play and I said I
really want you keep an eye on this and work it.” And I kept, you know, every few weeks
calling my agent saying, “Have they had auditions yet? Have they had auditions yet?”
My agent calls me and says, “They’re having an open call, an Equity open call for this
play” which I thought was odd to have an open call before even having, you know, submitted
auditions. I had not done an open call in years. So I
was like, okay. I prepared a monologue which I hadn’t done in years and was about to
go on this open call when the day before I called the playwright and I said, because
the playwright’s very involved with all the productions and it gets done like four
times a year at theaters. So I asked him. I knew he would’ve been in touch with the
theater. And I said, “Do you know anything about this production?” He said, “I’ve
been in touch a little. They’re hard to get a hold of but I’ll call for you,”
which was very nice. I didn’t ask him to do that.
He called. He called me back and he said, “Well, the director doesn’t really like
doing a play with actors who’ve done the play before.” And I said, “Okay. Well,
should I even come in? Is it even worth it to come in to an open call?” He called back.
The director had said, “Definitely, please do go to the open call.”
So I did. The director wasn’t there, only the casting director. I was a little disappointed
about that. Did it, felt good about it, left. A week later, my agent calls me and says,
“Well, now they’re only doing submissions. They’re doing actual, like, it was on the
breakdowns and everything.” So he got me an appointment. The director was there and
the casting director. We did the scene. It went really, really well. I had a talk with
him. Then found out a week later I had a callback. The night before I had the callback, I went
to go see the play that was currently playing at their theater. And it was also a two-person
play and one of the actors was a guy I had done a play with. He was a friend. So I went
to see the play and I noticed that before the show, the artistic director did the speech,
like you know, ‘Pagers off, and cell phones off, and look at our season blah, blah, blah.’
So in this intermission - she seemed like a very sweet woman - I went up to her and
I just chatted her up and I said, “Oh, you know. I worked with Jeffrey,” who was the
actor in the play. “We did this play.” And she’s like “Oh, yeah. He told me.”
And I said, “Yeah, you’re doing Visiting Mr. Green. It’s so exciting. I did that
play.” And she was like, “Oh, did you? You know, we’re having callbacks.” And
I said, “Yeah, I know. I got called back.” So just very innocently, I knew all this information,
put my face and name into her mind. And the next day, she was at the callbacks. So she
had already had contact with me. So I went to this massive four-hour long callback ordeal,
read with three different Mr. Greens. Finally the next week, found out I booked it.
>> KRISTINE: I know that some people, having had the playwright come back to you and say,
“You know, the director is not really hot on using someone who’s already done the
play…” That would’ve stopped some people there. They’re like, “Whoop! I tried.”
>> ANTONIE: Yeah.
>> KRISTINE: At any point in this process, did you almost stop?
>> ANTONIE: Yeah, that was the point: when he said he doesn’t like working with actors
who have done it. That and the fact that I couldn’t get an appointment that it was
this open call. I didn’t have a specific appointment. I’d have to show up early to
get an appointment. I was like, “I don’t do that.” You know, like I have an agent.
I need an appointment. I need an actual time when I know that I have to be there, so those
two things. I remember exactly, it was Sunday night and the next Monday was going to be
the appointment. I was almost not going to do it but then a part of me was like, “When
are you… You know, this play won’t get produced much here.” It’s a perfect opportunity.
And then, him finding out that I should go from the director, that he said, “No, no.
You should come to the audition,” made me get up early and…
>> KRISTINE: And that’s a great story. I just love that. I just love the pro-activity
of it. And thank you for sharing.
>> ANTONIE: Yeah, yeah. Of course, yeah.
>> KRISTINE: And that’s just one more example that you can bet on yourself and win. If you
need to get on the Actor’s Library newsletter list you can do so at theactorslibrary.com.