Laurie Telgen first heard about Straight Kill Films in September when the producers came to promote their open audition at Algonquin.
It seemed like an excellent way to further her career, and Telgen jumped at the opportunity. At the beginning of March she made the first cut, where half of the participants were eliminated.
“You never know until you try,” Telgen said. “It’s a great opportunity and I am glad I chose to go ahead with it.”
Telgen first took theatre arts at Algonquin when she was 29. Now, at 40, she decided to come back to take performing arts – a one-year program that just started this year.
The goal of Straight Kill’s producers, Matthew Bennett and Matt Wells, is to create openings for un-discovered talent.
“I’ve been in the business for 20 years as an actor,” Bennett said in a video promoting the film. “What I know is that there are some super talented people out there that never get an opportunity to be in front of a camera, or even audition for that matter.”
Wells and Bennett released a monologue from their movie script online and encouraged actors to record auditions and upload them to their website.
They came to speak with the college’s theatre arts and performing arts students to invite them to participate.
“They’re doing something brand new,” said Catherine Kenney, performing arts coordinator. “It’s exactly what I think this program should be doing. So it was an immediate marriage of minds, without a doubt.”
According the Kenney, Telgen was the only student from either program who auditioned.
“She’s courageous,” Kenney said. “There’s a huge emphasis at the college now on entrepreneurialism. And that’s really what she’s doing.”
The audition is purposefully left wide-open so actors have room to invent their own backstory for the character.
“You’re playing someone else, but all you have to work with is who you are,” said Telgen. “It’s a vulnerable place to be, to put yourself out there like that.”
Coming from theatre, where emotions and gestures are more exaggerated, Telgen had to tailor her acting to allow for the nuance of the camera.
“I did a bunch of takes and was like, ‘No, that’s too much,’” Telgen said.
“It was very encouraging to make it through. I think that is an accomplishment in itself. But I’m not taking any bows yet,” she said.
Come April, Bennett and Wells will tweet out a name each day of someone that they’d like to bring in for further auditions. On May 17 they announce their verdict.
Telgen’s audition video can be found on her Twitter page,@magicalaurie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-hJioM-0fI&feature=youtu.be