Applying Marie Kondo’s Principles to the Holding Room

By Jenna Pastuszek

Things that do not spark joy: 

• Blasting furnaces 

• Blasting air conditioning 

• Sick actors who are blowing their runny noses and should’ve stayed home instead of coughing  their germs onto your book 

• Having to find a spot to put your multiple bags 

• Sitting on dirty floors 

• Girls with curling irons 

• A long line at the table with an absent monitor 

• A monitor who hoards all of the lists making it impossible to gather information without  having to ask for it 

• Audition Update 

• Actors “catching up” in holding rooms competing in self-promotion contests by only answering  the “What have you been up to?” question with career related news 

• Loud, fake laughter 

• Cramped, crowded bathrooms with muddy footprints, stray hairs, and odd smells • The fact that it’s called a HOLDING ROOM 

Things that spark joy: 

• Hearing the monitor call your name 

• A sign in sheet where you can see how many people are still before you • Seeing an old friend and having a meaningful conversation 

• Meeting a new person and bonding over something non-audition related • Finding an empty chair to sit in 

• Reading a good book 

• Listening to great calming or energizing music 

• Tuning out of the noise and learning something in a podcast 

• Staring out of the window onto a sunny blue sky 

• Doing the tasks that make you feel prepared before your audition well-before you have to line  up (stapling that HS/resume, hole punching your sheet music, changing out of your street  clothes, etc.) 

• Being warmed up before you’re lined up 

• Entering the room already grounded and centered, whether that’s from a pre-audition  workout, a morning meditation, having already had breakfast and coffee, etc. • Catching a smile from someone else and giving one back 

• Multitasking by working on something that makes you feel accomplished while you wait

How else can we spark joy in the holding room for ourselves and for others? 

Perhaps finding more of that will help us all walk into the audition room with Marie's happy,  buoyant bounce.