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!

One last time for Stro...again

I had my callback for the Big Fish workshop this past Tuesday.  I had been given the music I learned on Friday to practice, so I knew I had to sing that again and I was also told to bring my book.  When I arrived, it had the feel of final callbacks and there were 15 girls there in total.  All of the girls had been in before, except for one and she was a notable Broadway veteran who had me very nervous.  The girls who were in for the same part as me, there were four of us, had to get to the audition early to go over the music.  So just the four of us went into a room with the accompanist to sing through the music.  Just a bit intimidating.  After the singing finished I had to go sit by myself to get my mind together, because I was letting myself get a little intimidated and freaking out.  YES I can be freaked out at auditions.  I'm still waiting to get my Broadway credit and when you are competing with girls who are constantly working on Bway it can get the best of you.

So after a quick pep talk from a friend and taking some time to get it together, it was time to go audition.  We first reviewed the tap combination very quickly and then we performed it three at a time.  Then five girls, including myself, were taken in to do the ballet combo for the featured part.  We reviewed it and then we each got to go one at a time for Stro!  After that it was time to sing.  Apparently I missed the memo about bringing an audition dress to sing in!  Now, yes it is standard to sing in a dress, but a lot of times dancers won't change to sing after dancing because:

1. You want casting to remember who you are.  i.e. the girl in the pink leotard etc. and if you change into something different they might get confused if the girl dancing in pink and the girl singing in green are the same person.

2.  A lot of times you go right from dancing to singing and there is not enough time to change.

So I didn't bring a dress to sing in, because it honestly just didn't cross my mind.  Oh well.  When it was finally my time to sing, and I was the LAST girl to sing.  I went into the room and sang the given music first with Andrew Lippa.  After the first time through, I received a correction on the acting/music and then was told to sing it again.  I implemented the change he asked for and he told me I did a good job on the correction!  Then I sang my own song Don Juan.  Stro told me "well done" and that was it!  The whole audition went really well, and I don't think I could have done any better.  Which, is really the best way to end the day, that way even if you don't get it you know that you couldn't have done anything else.  No Regrets!

I think the lessons that can be learned in all this is that:

1.  Sometimes getting cut at an audition has NOTHING to do with your dancing.  You go in a bad group, you are standing too far to the left to be seen, casting had to sneeze while you were dancing and thats all they could thing about..etc.

2.  There is nothing wrong with going in for the same thing over and over.

3.  If you feel something is awry, ask to be seen again.  The worst they can do is say "No".

Be Aggressive Be Be Aggressive.....Big Fish pt. deux

We last saw our heroine...


No really, after the Big Fish audition fiasco, I got angry...and then I got a bit aggressive.  Hence the title.  I emailed my agent, yes I have an agent now, and asked him if he could get me into the invited call for Big Fish.  He told me that he had submitted me but that they were not giving out that many appointments and that I hadn't received one, but he told me he would push for me.  However, about a week later I got a call from the agency saying that I had an appointment to be seen!  Hooray!


So on Friday of last week, I went to Pearl studios to audition for Big Fish again.  Given that this was one of many callbacks they were having I didn't know what to expect.  What I found was that they were doing a callback for some character actors/singers as well as looking at...um...some ethnic female dancers for the chorus.  Oh and Stro was in the room!  We learned a short character combo first, which was primarily a chance to see if the actor/singers could move.  They then excused everyone but four dancer girls and we had to learn a tap combination.  Luckily it was a shorter version of the combo I had already learned the day I got cut!  I performed the combination really well and they asked me and one other girl to stay and sing.  Now I was told that I should be prepared to do acrobatics at the audition, so when casting came out to tell us to get ready to sing I asked them if Stro wanted to see me tumble.  be aggressive be be aggressive The casting director went in and asked her and she said sure, so I went in and tumbled for her.  A few aerial cartwheels and a round off back handspring.  Then went out to get ready to sing.


I sang first out of the two of us, and sang "Don Juan" from Smokey Joe's Cafe.  It went really well. After I finished the song I stood there while the people at the table kind of looked at each other and then Stro told me that they had kind of changed there mind about what track they were considering me for!  That's when Andrew Lippa himself, stood up walked over to the piano and had me learn a song with him!  Whaaaaaaaaaaaat??  I learned a cut of a song, for the role of the mermaid.  It was all sung on La La's so at least there were no words to remember.  After I learned it sufficiently, I then had a solo/duet with Andrew Lippa in front of the entire creative team.  Insane, especially after only learning the music three minutes beforehand.  I thought it went alright, I had a little trouble finding the tricky last note in the duet, but overall not bad.  Casting then asked me to go wait outside.

The other girl went in to sing and they told her she was done for the day.  At this point I am now the last girl standing!  They asked me to come back into the room to learn a ballet combination. BY MYSELF.  So its just me learning a combination with the entire creative team watching me.  Its a fairly short combo, but there are a few turns and a final developpe turn sequence to work around.  After I learned it, I performed the combination alone in the room with Stro and the creative team watching.  A la Cassie in A Chorus Line "Music and the Mirror" style and that was it.  Stro told me I did a great job as did everyone else and I went home for the day.  A few hours later I got a call saying I was coming in for a callback!  Hooray!

Callback pt. 3 coming soon...


THE Donna McKechnie performing Music and the Mirror.  1. listen to the opening lines of her monologue..fantastic! 2. The legendary dance starts at 2:00

 

Big Fish Comes to Broadway

Ever since I saw this notice in Playbill I've been excited about this new show Susan Stroman is doing.  Primarily for the fact that if she cast me once, I have a better shot at being cast again!  Well two weeks ago was the audition for the latest workshop of Big Fish.  If you don't know, it takes years for new musicals to get produced.  Usually the creative teams spends a very long time just writing the book and music, then they will have readings of the show, next workshops, and then an out of town tryout.  IF all of that goes well then the show, if it has enough funding, gets to go to Broadway.  Its a very long and arduous process to say the least.  So this most recent audition was not for Broadway, but for a workshop; however, often times the cast gets to stick around and be on Broadway.  Therefore, being in a workshop is a good way to become an original company member of a new Broadway show.

Whew, after all that explanation lets talk about the audition!  First off, Stro likes her tall girls so the call was only for girls 5'6-5'10". however she actually doesn't mind if you are above that height requirement  This is always nice because it means the audition won't be nearly as crowded as they usually are.  Still, 90 equity girls showed up to audition that day.  I got to the audition in time to hear my name called on the list, and I was going to be in the first group.  The audition started with a tap combination in which we were supposed to be USO girls.  As we learned the choreography it was really cute, but hard AND it was the combination that would NEVER end!  I could feel my brain fighting itself to prevent a freak out.  There were so many points when I thought we had finished, we would take it from the top and get to "the end" only to have the asst. choreographer say "and the next step.." Ahhh!  It was quite honestly the longest tap combo I have ever learned in an audition! sixteen counts of eight to be exact

After finally learning the combination it is time to do it in groups of three.  I was number four so I was in the 2nd group to go.  When combos are long and difficult going in the beginning can be a risk.  My group started the combination but the downfall of tapping in a group is if one person gets off it can bring down everyone and that's what happened.  At some point things went awry and, though I personally didn't mess up, the taps became unclear and off the beat at some point.  We got it back together and finished fine, but I immediately had a bad feeling.  After all had danced my bad feeling was confirmed.  I was cut!  In the first round!  I  gagged! (mortified) After spending an hour and fifteen minutes in the room it was a major let down to not go on.  They didn't keep many of the girls in my audition group maybe 7-10 out of the thirst, but darnit I felt like I should be in that group!  After that round they did ballet and sang afterwards. *sadface*

P.S. I don't usually make a big fuss about getting cut at auditions.  I believe it is best to have a laissez faire attitude about it all, so that you don't take rejection personally.  I failed after this audition.  I was a little too personally invested, so shoot me.

Lets Rewind

Admittedly I have been very bad at updating this blog, since it has been a month since I've lasted posted I feel like I cannot just jump you all forward to this exact date and time so we will go back to the end of the rehearsal period and tell you about tech week.


For those non-theater folk reading this, "tech" is a time when the show leaves the rehearsal studio and finally gets into the theater.  You are dealing not just with actors, but also with lighting, sound, props, costumes...the technical aspects of the show hence the name.  Anyways, its also the time when we are allowed to be called to rehearse 10/12 hours in a day.  You want to talk about tired?  I have been in tech rehearsals before but never for a show of this scale and it was completely different.


There was so much to learn: First how to prep my hair for wigs, how to pin the mic pack into my head, how a wig gets pinned into my head..all just for sound.  Second, we get fully dressed in costumes and go stand on stage and start slowly going through the show from the beginning.  Third, "I have how many costumes and they weigh how much?" The costumes in this show, designed by William Ivey Long (click to see just some of the broadway shows he's designed for), are gorgeous but the splendor of them starts to wear off once you've been standing in them for 5 hours straight and you think your going bald because your wig is pulling at your hairline, and your starving because technically your not supposed to eat in costume...


Once we slowly made it through the entire show which took about four days (yes four whole days for a 2.5hr show), we began to run the show, first very haltingly to make sure everything was going smoothly, and soon right through from beginning to end.  Which was great!  After days of standing and slowly walking from one number position to the next you forget that you are actually telling a singular cohesive story.  So getting to do a full run through was a welcome change of pace.


What I've noticed in this process is that the pace is so fast you never get to become too comfortable where you are.  No sooner than we learned the whole show, we were going into tech week, as soon as we staggered through our tech we were doing a full out run through, and after that first attempt..guess who was making an appearance the very next day?  None other than Susan Stroman herself!  The nervousness and butterflies never end.


But seriously, is this actually my life?

One last time for Stro

Last week my voice teacher Mr. David Sabella-Mills gave me a homework assignment.  Like he was a regular h.s. teacher David told me to go out and sing my audition song (Waiting for Life to Begin) at one of the open mics around the city before I went to my final callback.  After a failed trip downtown on Monday night, I finally got up the courage to actually sing at Don't Tell Mama's a piano bar in midtown.  unfortunately it took about four drinks for me to get the job done, which meant it was a little hard to get up on Thursday morning.

Thus, I arrived at my 10am audition at 9:45! Of course they were running behind like last time, so I get some credit for not being all out crazy.  Anyways, I walk into the holding room and there are still 14 girls there!  Umm, what happened?  Did they not eliminate anyone the last call back?  Surprisingly enough there were 4 girls there who had never auditioned before!  How? What?  I have to find a way to get on THAT list.

At about 10:30, they call us into the room and review the tap and ballet combinations from before.  No surprises here, except that the pace is very fast.  After the review we head back out into the holding room, and the boys have arrived.   They head into the room to review and us girls wait for Ms. Stroman to arrive.  After quite possibly the longest 30 minutes ever, Ms Stroman arrives and the audition begins.

We start with tap, reviewing the combination once.  Then Stro (as she will henceforth be referred to) gets up in the front and tells us we will be going two at a time.  I get to be in the second group to go.  That may not seem good, but at the other two auditions I was the very last girl to go and THAT is nerve wracking.   Anyways, I do tap combo well, as does everyone else.  At this point everyone knows it so there is no one that isn't good.  Ballet goes pretty much the same.  Stro was so nice, calling all of us out two at a time herself, and telling each group "nice job ladies".  After everyone was done we went out to wait to sing.

The boys went into the room, auditioned, and came out, and now it was singing time!  I had worked on all the corrections that the casting director had requested, performed in front of the public at the open-mic.  All that was left was to do it when it counts.  I go into the room to sing, and there must have been six people, plus the piano player there.  I reviewed the song with him and there was nothing left to do but sing my little heart and try not to be scared.  It went as well as I thought it could and after I was done, Stro said "you had really good audition today"!  Amazing.

Thats it, after three auditions over the course of a week and a half, it was over and all I had to do was wait.










 Oh and today, June 18, 2010,  Tara Rubin Casting called...and I got the JOB!!!!!  The National Tour of Young Frankenstein ensemble and my equity-card!!!

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.