Anything Goes National Tour pt. 2

In January I went to the open call for the national tour of Anything Goes.  If you'd like to read about it please go here.   Four months later, I had the opportunity to go back in for another round of auditions for the tour.  Which is just an example of how unpredictable the casting of shows can be.  You never know if you've been cut or they are just waiting until later to call you in.

The audition started out with the jazz combination we learned in January from the song "Blow Gabriel Blow" and then a cut was made.  I was kept and then we put our tap shoes on to learn a tap combination!  Yay!  Of course the combination was from the shows title number "Anything Goes".  It was a classic style tap number, only 64 counts long and the difficulty was not too bad.  The combination consisted primarily of back essences, grab offs, buck triple time steps and cramp rolls. I'm apologize if you don't know the tap vocabulary.  After learning it as a large group we began to do it three at a time.  I nailed the combination and the grab offs they made each person do alone.  After everyone danced they made another cut and those of us that were left now had to sing.

I actually debuted a new song at this audition called "Oh Diogenes".  It is a classic Rodgers and Hart song and perfectly suited to audition for this type of show.  It is a little longer of a song, at 32 bars, than the usual 16-bar cut I sing most of the time.  The song went pretty well and I was asked to sing a second contrasting song.  I chose to sing "Simple Little Things" which is starting to become my go to second/soprano song.  After I got done singing everyone behind the table looked happy and generally entertained which was nice.  A few days later I received an appointment for final callbacks the following week!

*Unrelated Thought*

Thus far in my auditioning I've noticed three different faces people generally have behind the table.

1. The person who smiles no matter what.  They will keep smiling even if you sing off key, crash and burn with the accompanist, etc.  Of course that can lead them to look a little like a crazy person sometimes. LOL

2.  The person who gives you the dead stare no matter what.  You could be Idina Menzel in the audition room and they will just stare at you like they have heard it all before.  No smiling ever.

3.  The person who actually seems to be reacting to what you are singing.  They are along for the ride with you.  They might not actually be smiling but they are into it.

Obviously, my personal preference is to sing for person #3, followed by #1, and lastly #2.  Person #2 has a tendency to unsettle me when I'm singing, which can make me nervous and thus mess up my audition.

*Unrelated Thought End*

I Wanna Be A Producer!

This summer Atlanta's Theater of the Stars (TOTS) is putting on Mel Brook's and Susan Stroman's hit musical The Producers.  As with most summer stock theaters, auditions usually start with an EPA equity principal audition, where people audition for all the shows that a theater is doing for the summer.  I attended the EPA for TOTS about two months ago where I sang "Don Juan" for them and was told that I would be called back when TOTS was casting for The Producers.

Well, two months later I found myself at a callback for the show with several other girls.  Most of whom I knew and a few who had done the show already.  The call started at 2pm and I was unaware that I had a full day of dancing ahead of me!  We started off learning a number called "Springtime for Hitler" which was a musical theater jazz combo from "the show within the show."  The combo was quick and contained some abstract Nazi imagery, presented in a satirical way of course.  After we learned it we performed the combination three at a time, but no cuts were made.  We then got a chance to do a brief showgirl combination, that pretty much consisted of each girl doing her best Las Vegas showgirl walk across the audition room alone, but I discovered that my showgirl walks needed work!

At this point after two jazz combinations, we put on our tap shoes to learn a tap number from the show.  We were supposed to be showgirls at a party, but as the night goes on the showgirls slide down the road to intoxication!  It was fun and funny; especially, getting to see how everyone else in the room interpreted the drunkeness. I love getting to watch people's creativity in auditions.  Once this third combination was learned and done three at a time, I thought for sure we were done dancing, but we had one combination left in store!  We changed into flats and then learned a combination from "Till Him" which is done towards the end of the show.  We all had to pretend to be old ladies who were falling in love for the first time in a long time.  Hilarity ensued as everyone gave their best grandma impression, while still having to remember a tricky combination, and having to improvise a section at the end.  Phew!  A serious day of dancing to say the least.

Those four combos wiped everyone out, but we still had to sing.  I sang....can you guess? Yes, "Don Juan" and then the people behind the table told me I had a "very good audition today".  Always a good sign!  I heard from my agent that I am "on hold" for the show.  Just like with what happened with Nice Work if You Can Get It.  Basically, they have offered the role out to someone else, but they really like me.  So if a spot opens up in the next month, I may find myself in Atlanta!  No complaints here!

West Side Story International Tour

The past month I was busy working on a project that left very little time for auditioning.  I've only gone to three auditions recently, so there hasn't been much to update on.  Apologies for that.  Now, I did recently go in for my first invited call for a principal role.  It was for the role of Anita in the international tour of West Side Story.  What a fun role!  I was given a song and sides to learn and practice, which was nice because it helped me feel a bit more prepared going into the audition and I had about a week to get everything together.

The day of the audition, I was in the middle of doing a full run through for the show that I was rehearsing and had to run out during lunch just to be able to get to the audition.  I arrived there about fifteen minutes late, which my agent had already cleared with the casting folks beforehand and unfortunately, during my hasty exit from rehearsal I left my shoes behind!  I had to do the entire audition barefoot!  When I finally entered the audition room, ridiculously flustered, there were six other girls already in the middle of learning a combination from "America".  I had to jump in and learn the combo the best I could; however, the director, Joey McKneely, was gracious enough to go back and quickly reteach the beginning of the combination for me.  After reviewing it a few times and giving us corrections we then did the combination two at a time.  After that he had us do grande jetes (leaps) on each side and then everyone went outside to wait to sing.

I asked to sing as soon as possible so that I could get back to rehearsal, but still had to wait for  two girls to go in front of me.  Once it was my turn in the room I sang the excerpt they gave me from "A Boy Like That".  The song happens when Anita discovers that Maria is still seeing Tony, a Jet, who has just killed Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks and the boyfriend of Anita.  I sang it once and then Joey came over to me and said that while he liked my voice he wanted my acting to have less outward anger and suggested I turn the emotion more inward.  So I sang it again, and then he wanted to hear the last note again!  So I sang the last half of the song again!  I think that some people might get discouraged by corrections in an audition, but I love it because to me it means that they are interested in you and they want to see how well you take direction.

After the singing, I read the sides I was given.  Again, there were a lot of corrections and suggestions from Joey.  He even cajoled me into doing an improv dialogue with him where he was a little kid who wanted a cookie and I had to tell him no over and over again!  Now in my head I don't yet consider myself an actor so this was all incredibly foreign to me, but I gave it my best and tried to apply what I do when singing a song to reading the lines.  I definitely see a straight acting class in my future though! In total, I probably read the sides about three times and then they sent me outside to have my measurements taken!  Of course, that didn't mean I got the job.  The Rockettes do the same thing to their final round girls so that if they are selected they can start costuming right away.  They didn't take everyone's measurements though so I at least made it past the next cut!

Overall, it was a very new audition experience for me.  I haven't heard back from them yet, and the tour leaves in less than a month so I assume they gave the role to someone else.  But I was very happy how the audition turned out, especially since it started out so crazy!  Here's to more principal auditions in the future!



*This is the one and only Debbie Allen playing Anita during America at the Tony Awards.  Her dancing is just ridiculous!

Amazing Grace @ Goodspeed Auditions

Goodspeed Opera House is putting on a new musical called Amazing Grace, which is about the song's author, John Newton.  The audition notice specifically said that they were looking for performer's who played instruments; which meant almost everyone decided NOT to go the the call.  I wasn't going to go either, but then decided that I since I do technically know how to play the violin I should give it a try.  When I arrived at the call there was barely anyone there.  I came exactly on time and was put in the first group!  Thats how few people were there.  I had to hurry and get dressed so I could go into the room.

The choreographer of the show is Benoit-Swan Pouffer the artistic director of Cedar Lake Ballet and while he wasn't there that day his assistant was to teach us the combination.  Hello, contemporary concert dance! It was a combination of contemporary and African dance, fun to do, but pretty sure I looked like a nut!  We danced the combination in groups of three and after each group went they asked if anyone wanted to tumble.  After I danced in my small group I volunteered to tumble.  I swear this winter I have tumbled at almost every audition, its insane.  Anyways, I was kept after the first cut and had some down time while the non-equity girls went into the room to dance.

During the wait, I rented a room so I could warm up and practice my song.  I have started doing this recently at auditions and it really helps!  I decided to sing Come Down From the Tree from Once On This Island and prepared about a 32 bar cut despite the fact they had asked for 16 bars.  When it was time for me to go in and sing the accompanist told me my cut was too long!  Whaaaat??!  So he suggested we start from a different location, which I agreed to do, but wasn't exactly thrilled that I had been caught!  Lesson learned.  The song went awesome!  Yes I used the word awesome because its the first time I felt like that after singing at an audition.  The casting director then asked me if I could bring in an instrument if they called me back and I agreed.

A couple of weeks later I got a callback for the show.  We came in to dance again and I realized that I was in a room filled with former Alvin Ailey & Philadanco company members.  I had to wonder why I was there, but I stuck it out and learned the combintion.  By the time we were finished learning the combination we were all exhausted and sweaty and then we learned that the choreographer wouldn't be coming in!  Instead he watched the auditions on Skype!  Very interesting this new fangled technology.  We danced two at a time and then a few of us were asked to read sides, sides are small parts of the script actors get to perform at auditions.  When I went in to read, I was awkward and terrible, but it was my first time doing sides at an audition!  The director thanked me and I knew I had just taken myself out of the running for the job.  Learning something new everyday.

Annie the Musical Auditions

Annie the musical is coming back to Broadway in the Fall of 2012.  They have already started having auditions for it and I originally went in to the Equity Chorus Call (ECC) for dancers last month.  I unfortunately did not get to the audition in time to hear my name called from "the list" so I was given some ridiculously high number like 157!  Which meant I would be waiting around FOREVER!  Now, luckily for me being equity means that as long as I get to an audition on time I will be seen, but having such a high number does have its downsides.

1.  I have to wait around for hours, because they only take in 30 people or so at a time, and each group takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

2.  Just like any other job the people in casting can get bored after watching people audition all day and may stop paying attention.

But apparently these are risks I'm willing to take, since I can't seem to get there on time!

After waiting around for a couple of hours, I finally get to go into the room.  The choreographer of the show Andy Blankenbuehler is there with his assistant and he is teaching the combination himself!  He has previously done: In The Heights, 9 to 5, and Bring It On the Musical and I have never auditioned for him before so I was pretty excited.  We learned a quick combination from the section NYC in the musical.  It was very stylized and had some intricate footwork to it; which took me and everyone else in the room a little time to get.

After learning it, we went in small groups for casting which each group having to dance twice.  After my group went the first time Andy asked me if I could dance the combo "smaller."  I gave it a go and saw my headshot go into the "yes" pile! Yes I watch But then, there was no cut! We were all excused and confused because the previous groups were asked to do a quick tap combo after the first cut.  Welp, they ran out of time and thats what happens when you come late and go in the last group!!

Fast forward to a few weeks later, I was asked to come in and sing at Telsey.  I sang "Where Am I Going" from Sweet Charity and it went horribly.  Just not my best job at all.  I was pretty upset about it, but I learned some things from my Big Fish experience, so I didn't give up on getting seen for this show and we will see what happens!

Where is Everyone???

I think once about two years ago I talked about going against the grain and heading to a smaller audition on a day when there is a bigger call going on at the same time.  Well yesterday that is exactly what I did.  Northern Stage Theatre is a smaller equity house in Vermont that was holding a call for the musical Annie.  As a child I always dreamed of being Annie but given that I probably couldn't pull off the red hair, it was a dream never to come true.  (My mom and dad weren't Will and Jada..shout out to Willow!)  But I headed over to audition for it as an adult on the same day that auditions for a new upcoming musical called Becoming Chaplin was coming out.


Now, I expected fewer dancers to be there, but I walked in and there were only six equity girls there! Six!  And when all was said and done only twelve non-equity girls showed up!  So we all got to go in as one rather small group and learned a combination to the number "I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here".  The combination was very ballet influenced and right up my alley!  Nothing makes you feel more joyous in an audition than being in your comfort zone, let me tell you.  So I got to have a lot of fun, which is not always the case. 

We get to go three at a time for the casting folk and I am in the 2nd group of three since there were only six equity girls total.  I had a lot of fun and felt good about my performance and I could tell that a cut was being made, but they never announced it to us.   Instead they had all eighteen of us come back and sing.  I sang a fairly traditional song entitled A Little Bit in Love from the musical Wonderful Town, which went OK, but I pretty much decided at that moment that I cannot wait another week without taking my tush to voice lessons.  After singing that was it! We were all free to go and I headed down to that other audition for Becoming Chaplin.  Two auditions in one day? You bet, but more on that later!

Something Wicked this way comes!

It is unfortunately time to jump head first back into the audition circuit here in the city!  So Thursday, after returning from my dear friend's wedding (a seriously awesome, beautiful, never been so happy for someone ever wedding)...what?  Oh right this is an audition blog.  Anyways, Thursday I went over to the Wicked dancer chorus call.  I really love the musical, but its been on Broadway forever and they are rarely ever looking for people.  But I went anyways, because I had never been and wanted to see what the combination was like.


I was the 26th equity lady to get an audition card and they decided to take us in, in groups of 30, so I was in the first group to go.  Hooray for no waiting!  Well, can I just say that this may have been one of the worst auditions I have ever had!  Simply put, the combination was very contemporary ballet and well after about a year of straight jazz and tap, you could say I was woefully unprepared.

Here's a video that gives an example of choreo, but its not the combo they used.  Starts at 1:25 or so.

The combination instead of being taught in eights, was counted in fours, fives, and a seven.  Add to that movement that just refused to feel comfortable in my body and you have a recipe for disaster.  After just struggling to pick up the material, I finally got it at least well enough to not completely embarrass myself, but it was still terrible.  I can't sit here and pretend it was anything else.  However of our group of 30 they only kept 2 and I'm not even sure if they were asked to sing.  So I'm no too upset.  At least now I know what to expect and also if I'm serious about Wicked I should take my butt to some contemporary classes!  So it wasn't a totally useless or demoralizing experience.

On to the next one!

Young Frankenstein cont.

Tuesday morning, was the morning of the callback for Young Frankenstein.  It was set to begin at 10am and me being my early-arriving self got there at 9:30.  There were several new faces that were not there yesterday and only a few people I recognized from the day before.  Apparently, getting called back from a chorus call gets you into the "Invited Dance Call" which is what other people are just invited to in the first place.

The audition starts out with tap again, only this time its the combination all the equity girls learned yesterday.  I practically run to the front of the room, because I know I'm going to need to be able to see if I want to get this right, but it really didn't matter because the assistant choreographer kept making everyone switch around so we all got a chance to see.  He started teaching the combination and it was fast and a little complicated.  One girl left the audition before he even finished teaching it!

Have you ever studied for an exam and then when you sat down to take it realized it was nothing like you had planned?  You studied straight facts, and suddenly its an essay test?  That's what this was like, but just like when sitting in a surprisingly difficult exam, you have a choice.  Either give up and sit there staring off into space until its over or try to get it together and make sense of what you're looking at.  I literally felt my brain turn on and forced myself to take it all in.  Luckily they let us go over it a couple of times before we had to do it three at a time and I made the cut!

Next we did the same ballet combination from the previous day, so my brain got a break.  They didn't make a cut at this point since there were 13 people left (yes I counted!) .  It was time to sing again,  after doing such an awful job the day before I wanted to practice a bit before I went in but there was no where to do it.  Every time I tried to practice a lovely employee from the studio would tell me not to. Ugh.  I had planned on singing A Little Bit in Love again, but when I got in the room.  I asked the casting director and choreographer what they wanted and they said whatever I was most comfortable with so I completely switched gears and sang Waiting for Life to Begin from Once on This Island.

Surprisingly, the casting director told me how much better this song was than yesterday's!  She also took the time to give me feedback on my performance.  It was the first time anyone had every taken the time to do this and I was extremely grateful.  Still upon leaving I let all hope go out the window.  Its better as a performer to just know you didn't get it when you leave an audition so that its a surprise when you do rather than a disappointment when you don't.

Yet somehow, the next day, I look at my phone and there's a missed call from Tara Rubin casting!  I've been called back again!  This time, the call back is for next week and Susan Stroman is going to be there!  The woman has one FIVE TONYS!! She directed and choreographed The Producers!   This is really quite the opportunity and I'm really excited.  I don't know how many spots there are on the tour..I've heard two females and I don't know how many girls will be there next week.  But this whole experience has been awesome! Wish me luck!

P.S. Please listen to LaChanze sing Waiting for Life to Begin and KNOW that I SOUND NOTHING LIKE THAT.  She sings it a whole step higher than me and she's an icon...that is all.

My First Equity Call Back

Its been a month since I've posted. The month of May was particularly slow, and coupled with all the mental and physical exertion..lol from Radio City I have pretty much been relaxing since then.

On Monday, however, I finally got my butt up and went to an audition. It took a lot of cajoling from my biggest fan, but I got there. It was a call for Young Frankenstein the musical, created by the famous Mel Brooks, it ran on Broadway and now is touring nationally. It is the story of Frankenstein, but told with a humorous plot.

I just made it to the audition at 2pm, and there was not many people there. Granted the call was for girls 5'6" to 5'10", can you say..advantage? Anyways, there were about 30 equity girls there and about 40 non-equity girls. They tell us we will be doing tap first and take the first group of 15 equity girls in. The group takes about 25 minutes and they are apparently teaching the same combination they always teach...which would be great if I knew it, instead I'll be at a distinct disadvantage. Its no fun to be one of the only people to not already know a combination in an audition. The second group of equity girls get their turn and then it is time for the non-eq girls. Given that I was one of the last people to get there I am put in the 2nd group of non-eqs, so I have one more group to wait. I thought I had 25 minutes but as soon as the girls come in, they are coming right back out. It turns out for the non-equity girls they are just doing buck triple time steps. AWESOME!

I get in the room and they go over the time step and then line us all up and we do four time steps each one at a time all the way down the line. Then they made a cut and I was kept. The bring everyone back in the room equity and non-equity and teach us a ballet combination in character heels. Its fairly simple, balances, developpes (kicks) single turn, jete (leap). Its surprising, but you really can tell a lot about a dancer from such a simple combination. They made us go three at a time across the floor and then it was time for another cut. Yay, they keep me again.

Of course now comes my favorite part...the singing. There are about 18/60 girls left and they ask us for a traditional musical theatre song. So I chose to sing "A Little Bit in Love" from the musical Wonderful Town. (see Audra show how its done) It went awful...or at least it felt awful. All over the place register wise, but I gave it and pretty let the audition go, figuring I had blown it.

But when I got home from the audition, my cell rang and it was Tara Rubin casting calling to invite me back the next day for a call back! These people must be out of their minds!? But I graciously accepted and prepared for the next day...