Well, noted?

WOW!
For the first time ever in my life I was told that I need to have a lighter, more playful air AND that I do not exude a personality when I'm not in a scene. The good news is that I have the basics of improvisation down. I told you that I am often misunderstood. My trying to take something serious and being nervous has turned into "looking uncomfortable".
I can understand that I was nervous, and that these people have never met me, nor have I them. I can understand that when I'm watching other people do scenes in front of me, I'm in my head a little, wondering what they are doing, and listening. Especially when it comes to people that I've never watched, or played with before. And for those of you who don't know, sometimes watching people do scenes can be torture. Maybe that's what they saw? LOL

More playful? ME? OK. Sometimes I can hold back. I remember an audition I had YEARS ago for a television commercial. The line was "kinda tastes like chicken". They handed me a toasted coconut covered marshmallow as if I were on the line of the assembly plant making these nuggets. I had to bite into it and say the line. I wanted to start clucking like a chicken during my audition, and ran that by someone I trusted. They told me NOT to do that, that the casting company would not find it funny. I should have done it anyway because I didn't get the callback.
 But MORE playful in life? PLEASE! This is the woman that just yesterday entertained children by clucking like a chicken. Sure at first they were confused, possibly even scared, but they did laugh eventually.
A friend of mine recently told me to act if it is the ONLY time that you will be on that stage... Of course this was after the audition that I got the above notes about. The audition that I wrote about the other day, I also did not get, however, the email was well written and very general, stating that we have your photo and resume on file, but that you weren't the specific that we were looking for. I'm not sure if I can ask for notes or not. It did remind me of a letter that companies used to send out when you didn't get the job. Nicely done. I want to thank them for that.

My question is this... How does one gain confidence on stage- i.e. not looking nervous or "uncomfortable" if one doesn't get stage time? It's like a catch 22. I've been taking classes at 2 different major theaters for 2 years. You have about 8 weeks to play with people while learning about yourself and how they play. A respected teacher of mine once told me, there are only so many classes that you can take before you just have to get out there and do it. I guess I just have to bite the bullet, invite some people to play with, find a coach, and just get started.
Oh, one more thing. I totally get that many theaters of Improv have classes at their theaters, and that is how they make their money. HOWEVER, in giving notes to someone, maybe you shouldn't make a sales pitch as the end of the letter (three whole paragraphs?). It seems kind of tacky. I'm not saying, I'm just saying.
I did write a thank you for giving me notes email and told them that I want to take the summer off from taking classes.
Funny thing is? I have another audition on Sunday, and I have NO CLUE what I'm doing yet. I guess I'm just going to go have fun and see what happens... I mean, It's not like rejection is an uncommon theme this month, might as well have a grand old time. Right?