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!