Artist Story: Scott Aiello

About two years ago, I began to grow restless as a Chicago actor. My career resembled that of many others in the city. I was working regularly at the smaller houses and, on occasion, was invited to play by the bigger Equity companies.  I had an agent, but was only booking about one or two well paying gigs per year.  In other words, I was doing better than some, but worse than many. Moreover, I was rarely being paid enough to earn a living just at my craft.  Now, well into my 30s, I began to wonder why this was so.

Part of it, I’m sorry to say, was Chicago.  As an actor, it’s a tough city to make a living in.  There is not nearly enough TV and film being shot to keep such a large acting community afloat.  Also, it seemed that 90 percent of the Equity work was going to about five percent of the Equity actors. But I had to be honest with myself and consider that there were still a great many actors in this city that were making a living.  So why was I not one of these elite union actors that one sees bouncing from Steppenwolf to Goodman to Chicago Shakespeare on top of getting called in for every movie that passes through the city?  I was forced to conclude that the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in my stars, but in myself.

My acting techniques—voice, speech and preparation—were simply not up to par with many of my colleagues. I was a philosophy major in college and I had no formal training. As a result, I have always relied very much on my instincts or gut feelings.  If I could not feel emotion then I had no idea how to play the scene truthfully.  Whatever preparation I did, I made up myself, and it was always geared towards generating emotion.  As a result, the truth in my acting was extremely spotty.  It was after this self-introspection that I first began to seriously think about actor training programs.

The next step was to gather information.  I wanted to know which schools were generally considered to be the best.  I contacted people whose opinion I respected, were familiar with my work, and were in a position to know where the best actors were coming from.  Steve Scott (Goodman artistic producer), Adam Belcoure (Goodman casting director), Lou Contey (Timeline associate director/teacher at DePaul University), and Susan Hart (Chicago actor/acting coach) were among those I spoke to.   I asked them what the top five actor training programs in the country were and, though their answers varied, the Juilliard School was always mentioned. I decided, after pooling opinions and a bit of research on my own, to apply to Juilliard, NYU, Yale, the Old Globe program at UCSD and University of Delaware.

All the programs I applied to gather in Chicago each January to audition prospective students which gave me three months to prepare.  I was in a show at the time (Requiem for a Heavyweight with Shattered Globe), so that helped to keep me sharp.  I also signed up for weekly monologue coaching sessions with Susan Hart and Jeffery Carlson (a Juilliard grad) and worked out daily, trying to trim down and tighten up a bit.  Because, lets face it, physical appearance matters in this business.

Finally, the big week arrived.  I scheduled one audition for each day of the week, which had many advantages.  Mainly that, if I made the end of the day callbacks, I didn’t have to try and juggle callback times with different schools.  But also, I had time to reflect at the end of each day’s auditions on what worked, what didn’t, and how I could improve on the next day’s round. 

Each experience was vastly different among the schools I auditioned for.  I found NYU to be a bit cold and stuffy, the Old Globe very warm and friendly, Delaware was wacky and involved many strange physical postures and vocal tests, and I’m not sure that the Yale auditor was even aware that I was in the room. With my Juilliard audition, however, I really got the first sense of what I was looking for in a training program. 

The two auditors (Richard Feldman and Ralph Zito) were two of the kindest, most unpretentious artists I had ever met in my life.  They immediately put the entire group of auditionees at ease. I was the oldest person in the room by about 12 years and, understandably, a bit shaken by this fact.  Richard, however, allayed my fears by explaining to the group that Juilliard was looking for all ages—from high school graduates to older, working professionals.

During my initial audition they took monologue pieces I had been doing for years to levels I never thought possible. I walked out of that first audition thinking, “I could really learn something from those two men.” I made end of day callbacks and, that night, had more fun than I’d had in many years on a stage. We did group acting exercise that ranged from sensory work involving imaginary objects to theatre games.  That night, I felt like the only thing that was really being “judged” was my ability to play.  I left callbacks that night on a high and with a great desire to attend Juilliard.

Two weeks later, I received a phone call from the school inviting me to the final callbacks in NYC.  There were 45 people from around the country invited out of which they would cast a final class of 18.  The final callbacks were quite intense with two complete days of classes at Juilliard including voice, speech, movement, poetry, acting, dancing, singing and play.  We were put through the gauntlet with the faculty always nearby, observing with clip boards in hand.  At night, we were given scripts to analyze and prepare for discussion the next day.  I had never been more exhausted than after my final callback weekend at that school. Until I got in, that is.

I must have done something right because a month later I received a phone call inviting me to join the incoming class.  Every drama class at Juilliard receives a Group number.  Kevin Kline and Patty Lupone, for example, were both members of Group 1.  Forty years later, I had the distinct pleasure and honor to become a member of Group 41.  To say that I was ecstatic would be an understatement.  I sold nearly everything I owned, bade my family and friends goodbye and packed up for the Big Apple with no idea how busy my life was about to become.

Days at Juilliard begin at 9 a.m. with a vigorous cardio workout.  We focus on strengthening the body core through calisthenics, a bit of cardio-kickboxing, and a full 25 minutes of abdominal work.  Then, depending on the day, we move through a variety of classes that generally end around 6 p.m.  Juilliard focuses more on voice and speech than any other acting program in the country.  We have about nine hours of voice classes and about six hours of speech per week.  They are designed to strengthen the tone of the voice, create greater dexterity of the articulators, and increase breath space and length.

Juilliard is also heavily into the Alexander Technique which was developed at the turn of the century by F.M. Alexander to increase awareness of the body and its alignments.  It allows for easier flow of breath and energy and gives you excellent posture on stage.  We take about six hours a week of this class.

Acting class is, of course, key to the training.  My acting teacher, Richard Feldman, is the best I have ever encountered.  He is the near-perfect balance of gentle, nurturing support structure and ball-breaking taskmaster.  Richard never accepts anything less than your best, and he knows how to get it out of you without being demeaning or negative.  We have him about nine hours per week, but I wish it were twice that amount.

We also take a variety of fun classes that are geared toward nurturing and sparking creative thinking.  We take poetry class, in which we read the great poets, and come up with our own original pieces each week.  This culminates in a huge presentation at the end of the year, in which we read our pieces to the entire division.  There is also a class called “Play,” run by the always hysterical Frank Deal.  This class is exactly what it sounds like.  We get together and play for three hours.  Theatre games ranging from the very simple like Red Light/Green Light to hugely complicated games like Zoom, Shwartz, Profigliano, Mordice, and Cromer (this one would take me a page by itself to explain). 

Also, because it is Juilliard after all, we take Music Studies.  This is an amazing class in which we listen to and discuss famous composers and their works.

Once class is over, however, the work has just begun.  We are always in shows at Juilliard, referred to as “Rehearsal Projects.”  For the first two years they are very minimalist.  There are limited costumes and props, and the “showings” take place in the harsh fluorescent lighting of our practice rooms. Rehearsals take place each night after class and run till about 11 p.m.

Now on the verge of entering my second year, I am absolutely confident I made the right decision. I am, quite simply, a much better actor than I was a year ago.  I have learned to relax and listen on stage and not worry about generating emotion.  I try to focus my attention on the other actors and let my reactions come from them, rather than from a place within myself. I would say that, before entering Juilliard, I was merely an entertainer.  Now, however, I believe I am becoming something more.  I think I’m learning what it means to be an artist.
 

 

Scott Aiello is a professional actor in his second year of training at the Juilliard School in NYC.  A Chicago actor for many years, Scott has appeared in dozens of productions with companies such as Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, Marriott (Lincolnshire), Shattered Globe, TimeLine, Eclipse, Pegasus Players, and many others.  He was awarded a Non-Equity Jeff Award for Supporting Actor in 2003.