The Audition Outfit

What should I wear today?  This question plagues many people on the planet every time the sun rises.    Yet somehow, as a performer going on auditions, the decision holds a lot more weight than just being cute for the day.  Now, I do not subscribe to the idea that you must go in costume or even dress for the show you are auditioning for.  You will see me in the exact same outfit at almost every audition, a bright colored leotard/tank top and my trusty black skort.  I'll be wearing that at Annie, Wicked, Oklahoma, Young Frankenstein ;) , Memphis...you get the picture.  I truly believe that if you can dance it doesn't matter what you wear.  If you are right for the role AND can dance it REALLY doesn't matter what you wear.  There are only two instances where I think that an outfit can make or break it at an audition. 

The first instance is when you are borderline right for the role and can dance.  For example, the other day I auditioned for Fame which takes place in h.s. in the 80s.  Now, I am almost 5'9" which means I do NOT read as a high schooler.  So in order to look the part, I wore tennis shoes a t-shirt and my hair in a ponytail.  I dressed younger, like I was in high school, so that I would not be typed out immediately.  So if someone is trying to look younger, older, more ethnic, less ethnic, shorter, taller, etc.  then yes consider your outfit.  However, if you cannot get the choreography this will not help you in the least.

The second instance is when the audition is for something so specific that it is well known what you should wear, i.e. The Rockettes, A Chorus Line, Mama Mia, Rock of Ages, etc.  For the Rockettes and A Chorus Line you need to show up in a leotard, tights, and a heel.   NOTHING else.  Linda Haberman and Baayork Lee do not play and they do not want anything breaking up your lines like pants or *gasp* shorts.  Baayork nearly had a heart attack when a girl wore shorts in her chorus line audition.   For Mamma Mia they want you in street clothes, don't come in a leotard and a Laduca they will not appreciate it.

Those two instances are the primary cases where you need to craft a specific look for your audition, but again they will never make up for poor technique and if you are fantastic enough they won't keep you from getting hired.  I have seen a girl in a unitard and ballet shoes make a Rockette cut simply because she was good, but that is the exception and not the rule and most of the time you will not be the exception.  So, do not go out and buy anything for a specific audition.   Make do with what you have and let's all focus on the dancing and not the fashion.

Minor Redemption @ Rocky Horror

After my championship performance at Wicked the week before, I decided to sign up to audition for the Rocky Horror Picture show this past Thursday Jun, 2.  A brief aside, you have the opportunity as an equity member to sign up for chorus calls a week in advance.  That way if you do it early enough you can guarantee you'll be seen in the first group and usually get the most time to learn the combination.  The only catch is that you have to be at the audition 30 min ahead of time or else you lose your spot and have to sign up in the order in which you arrived.  Of course although I signed up ahead of time, I missed my name being called from this list.  So to the end of the line I went.  Lucky for me there was barely anyone there, so I was still only #35.

I assumed I was in the second group.  So I went to go change.  If you've ever seen Rocky Horror, you know that they wear some crazy little outfit.  Emphasis on little!  I don't have anything to crazy, so I tried my best to look cute and then went to the holding room to wait for about 45 min until it was time to go in.  The combination was something I can only describe as odd.  It was all about the drama, actings, and the character you could get into.. and it was quick.  There was this one really quick hand part, that no one seemed to be catching onto.  I've included a clip from the movie of the song we danced to for your enjoyment:

We performed the combination six at a time, and lucky for me by the time my name was called I had pretty much figured out the one section I was struggling with.  They then made a cut and I was asked to stay and sing.  Hooray! My good friend who was also asked to stay and sing had this great idea that we should rent a room to warm up in for the second part of the audition.   What an awesome concept!  Just a quick 15min to warm up and hear yourself sing your 16 bars really helps you feel prepared.  Especially this time when I was singing a song I had not yet done at an audition.
Anyways, they maybe kept a third of the girls to sing.  We lined up and one at a time went in to sing.  I sang this:

And that was it.  I think that it went pretty well.  But nerves always make you sound a little different than you do when you are not in the audition room.  But honestly I have no complaints.  Haven't heard from them, but don't much care as I really just needed a chance to prove my brain had not turned to much and to debut my new 60s/70s pop song!

And We're Back!

Today was the audition for the national tour of A Chorus Line. The national tour has been running equity for the past couple of years, but will soon be turning non-eq, presumably to save money. So today Binder Casting held an open non-equity call for female dancers.

With the call scheduled to start at 10:30, I arrived at 9:15 and had the pleasure of being #159. Joy. Luckily they started early and they decided to type. Now, typing is when a large group of guys/girls go into the room at the same time, and the casting director or choreographer, will have them do something simple (like turns) and then make a cut. Often times they are just looking for basic technique and more importantly the "look" of the characters they are casting.

Anyways, they took groups of 35 girls in at a time, and after waiting about an hour my group went in the room. Of course who should be in the room running the audition? The one and only Baayork Lee (see photo)! She is THE ORIGINAL Connie in A Chorus Line and she is just ridiculously amazing. As soon as we got in the room she just started walking up to people saying "Don't wear shorts to an audition!" "You need more lipstick" "You need more makeup!" It was hilarious and not done in a mean way at all, just very matter of fact. I could tell at that moment that this was going to be very interesting. So Ms. Baayork lines all of us up and then one by one we do double pirouettes(turns) on both the right and left side and that was it! The first cut was made and Ms. Lee tells all of us on the way out, "If you got cut, get to ballet class!"

I was kept to the next round and had to wait around for another 90 min to two hours to dance again. This time we learned the combination that Chorus Line was known for, I Hope I get It (Full Combo Starts at 1:03) It was a shortened version, but it was fast, sharp, and had to be very precise. Ms. Lee wanted hands in an exact spot and stated that she wanted the combination done exactly as she showed it, no variations. Several times while going through it, she would say "I'm teaching this too fast, you all are not getting it!" It was never intimidating though, it just made you want to work harder. After finally getting the combination we had to do the combination two at a time across the floor, just to tire you out and then you had to do it two at a time for the actual audition. There was so much energy in the room it was just amazing! When it was my turn to dance across the floor I tried to make sure that I hit every count and really perform it with the intensity it needed and I made the next cut.

Crazily enough the day was still not over, we were all told to come back at 4pm to sing. Oh singing, my arch nemesis, why must you rear your ugly head ALL the time? Now I had picked a song to sing with my voice teacher because I had been intending to go for Sheila. Now Sheila is an older Broadway vet auditioning for the Chorus and she has quite a bit of attitude. She is the first singer in At the Ballet. So I sang a song with more "gravitas" as my teacher would say and after all that prepping and planning the casting director asks me if I can sing something else!..."something a little lighter" So I pick my go to Waiting for Life and all I get is a "Thank you, have a good day". Crap. I've been cut. Really? Really? For once I thought I didn't do too bad and still nothing.

Ah well, despite being there from 9:15am to 5:30pm, and receiving nothing, I did get to spend the day with an awesome lady AND I obviously didn't sing too bad since they wanted to hear me sing some more. So I'll keep going back to the drawing board until I find something that works.