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!

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!

Elbow, Wrist, Hand...Eye High...and all that!

Its May, and of course that means its time for Rockette auditions again!  I think I've done more than enough blogging about the experience.  So I'm just going to do a couple of quick bullet points for anyone who is curious about the specifics of this year.

• This year instead of having girls line the block and stand outside for hours, Radio City handed out slips with times to come back.  I got there around 8:15am and was given a slip for the 10:45 time slot.
• When I came back at 10:45, I still ended up waiting an hour before I could come inside, but spent a significantly less amount of time waiting once inside the building.
• They started out with a jazz combination, then made a cut.  Once they had seen all the girls, the ones who made it past the first cut came back in and learned the rest of the jazz combination. Then a second cut was made.
• To finish out the first day we learned a quick tap combination; which is always a relief to me because thankfully its something I'm very comfortable doing.  A third cut was made and then those of us who where left were invited back to callbacks the next day.
• 32 girls left

How did I feel about the first day, ok.  My double turn was off all day which was really annoying because I can turn just fine on the daily.  I also did one wrong head turn, but overall a solid day.

Day Two

• I arrived around 9:15am and the audition began at 10am. 
• We learned a "new" jazz routine, which is called Shine. This combo has actually been used in callbacks the past three years.   After all the girls went, Linda Haberman told us that she thought a lot of us, let nerves get the best of us.  So she made us do it again as a big group, and kind of walked around the room looking at us.  Fun.
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• Then we learned the rest of the tap routine and did the jazz combination from yesterday over again.
• Then a surprise! They made a cut.  I have only seen a cut made one other time on the second day and that was early in the day, not all the way at the end.  
• After the cut, we did a pretty long kick combination.  Then they had all the girls line up, link up, and kick together.  I have not seen that done at all in the past three years.
• At the end of it all there were 26 girls left

 Nothing more to add.  My pirouettes were acting up, and man I was tired by the time it was time to kick, but here's to hoping that I can get that call again!

Callbacks for Memphis

In March I wrote about attending the equity chorus call for the national tour of Memphis.  Well, in the middle of April I received an email from Telsey casting to come in for a call back! Hooray!  After a long harrowing ordeal to get to NYC, I arrived an hour late for my appointment and had to go in the next group.


Unlike some other equity callbacks, this call still had a ton of people, and the first group took a very long time in the audition room.  However, once they were done the later group of girls, and there must have still been 50 of us, went into the room to learn the combination.  The combo turned out to be the same combination learned at the chorus call, with a few differences.  Mainly that there were two different variations that you had to learn and then based on how you were lined up you did one or the other.  A bit much to have to remember in an audition situation.  But we learned them and then went five at a time.  They then made a cut, and I was kept.


For the second combination all the girls were brought back into the room and told to put our heels on.  The asst. choreographer, Edgar Godineaux, then taught us a second combination which was very fun!  It was a cute combo, which I can only describe as being in the style of a Motown doo-wop singer.  It was a little longer, but despite being exhausted I managed to pick it up.  When it came time for my audition, I gave it all I had at the time, didn't mess up, and thought I did pretty good.


Unfortunately when it came time to move on to the next thing, about nine of us girls, were called over by the casting director and told that "It wasn't a bad thing, they were just considering us for another track, and that they didn't need to hear us sing today"  Booooo, there were still about 50 girls left so I was a little disappointed not to sing.  At the time, I wasn't sure if I had just been cut or if they really were considering me for another track in the show.  But as of last week, offers went out for the tour, so I guess it was a cut.  Its all for the best though, but I sure do love that musical!  Maybe next time!

Walking in Memphis!

So the other day I mentioned attending an EPA and leaving to go to another audition in between.  Well, that in between audition just happened to be the equity chorus call for Memphis the musical!  The 1st national tour will be going out in the fall and while I'm not sure if I'll be ready to go back on tour just yet, I figured there would be no harm in going in and getting seen.


After leaving the Ogunquit audition, I arrived at Memphis around 10:45.  The awesome thing with having my equity card is that I was able to walk right in to the monitor and grab a number!  I was only #49 at that and they were doing groups of twenty-five, so I knew I would be in the second group.  I took some time to change and warm up and before I knew it, I was going in to the audition.


The combination was taught to us by someone who is still currently in the show running on Broadway.  It was a fun little combination called radio, where we were supposed to pretend we were bad, misbehaving teenagers.  It had an odd little penche step in it repeatedly, along with a short stomp combination!  This being my first audition in over six months words can't express how nervous I was to 1. now be in a room with all equity dancers and 2. to have to pick up, remember, and perform a combination so quickly!  After learning the combination, they told our group to leave and go practice it outside, while the first group went back in to do it three at a time.


We all filed back out into the holding room and began to practice.  Its always amusing and good to have time to practice a combination before having to do it for the casting crew, but at the same time you don't want to tire yourself out or get messed up watching everyone else do it.  So I practiced it a few times, and then focused on stretching, considering they had stated that when we kick our knee should be by our ear and they didn't care how it got there! LOL


After a very short time, we went in to perform the combo.  It was fun and went fairly well, I just had one minor mistake at the very end of the combo.  But I don't really think it mattered.  Unfortunately I will never know because they didn't make a cut!  Well they did, but they didn't announce it.  Instead the casting director told us that they were going to be seriously casting for the tour in April and there was only one Broadway spot opening up in May.  So we wouldn't be hearing from them for a while even if we did make the grade.  Booo!  Another anticlimactic audition, but it was good to dip my foot back in the audition pool.  Only two more months before I'm unemployed again!

Equity Principle Auditions??

So I've been on tour for the past six months, but more on that later.  Yesterday I had a day off and decided to come to the city to give a go at auditioning for the first time in 2011.  After landing at Laguardia and stopping by my apartment to get my things together, I headed out on a rainy day to try to make it to two auditions.  The first audition was an Equity Principle Audition (EPA) for Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine.  They are doing Legally Blonde and some other musicals for the summer, but I am obviously interested in being Pilar!  It was my first time going to a principle call, and I got there around 10:15 for a call that started at 10am.

Let me explain a little about EPAs.  Usually an EPA call will run about 8hrs during a day and that 8hrs is broken into 20 min slots with five or so people able to sing during that 20mins.  However getting a time slot is on a first come first serve basis the day of.  So many people arrive an hour or so ahead of time to make sure they are able to actually get a time slot.  Once all the time slots are filled, any other equity members who want to audition must sign up on the alternate list and wait around all day to see if anyone doesn't make their time slot.

Now, considering I couldn't make it there early because I just got in town, there was no way I was getting a time slot. So I waited in line to be number 18 on the alternate list.  Then left to go to another audition with plans to come back.  After the other audition finished I came back to Chelsea to find that they had were only on alternate #3!!  Sigh, I'm obviously going to be waiting around all day.  Finally at 3:30 after sitting around for 3 hrs, the monitor was able to get me in to sing.  Yes sing, the bane of my existence but crucial if I want to ever move out of the ensemble.

I had prepared to sing Fairytale by Sara Bareilles because it was poppy and has a cute story, but its a little low for the range they asked, but after having a couple of people hear me sing that song and the other song I was thinking of, I decided on Fairytale.  I go into the room, explain my song to the accompanist and introduce myself to the casting folk.  They ask me if I dance and I tell them I'm a dancer then sing my song,   The song itself went well, but my acting was atrocious, lol, one more thing to work on...  Anyways, they casting director then asked if I had a pop song to sing.  A what? I'm pretty sure I just sang a pop song.  But then he explained further that he wanted to hear a 50s/60s pop song.  Crap.  Of course I don't have one, so he says thats ok and thanks me for my time.  Booooo!

I'm really annoyed because I had specifically been trying to think of a 50s pop song to add to my book for awhile.  Now its top of my priority list.

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?