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?

My Brain is Full

I have officially been in California rehearsing for the national tour of Young Frankenstein for a week now and my brain is filled to capacity.  Currently are rehearsal schedule is a lovely 7 hours a day 6 days a week and over the course of these past 42 hours, I have learned all the music/harmonies for my part in the show and the cast has completed 4-5 full numbers in the show.  Needless to say by the end of the day my attention span and focus is zero.

However, despite my poor brain turning to mush, I LOVE my new job!  I get to spend all day dancing and singing and I love it so much and we are not even performing yet.  I'm sure by May I will be tired of doing the same show over and over again, but I'm a working professional dancer!

A special added bonus is the amazing group of people I'm getting to work with.  We have only been here 5 days and yet we are all getting along great, hanging out, and having fun with each other like we are old friends.  They are making being away from home a little easier.  However, I think I am getting a complex because I am the shortest girl in the ensemble!  At 5'9" that's a pretty new experience for me and I'm starting to feel like a shorty!

Oh yes, one last thing.  Apparently the studio where we are rehearsing is a pretty big hub for music artists.  So far, Usher and his dancers, Snoop Dogg, and Earth, Wind and Fire have been through here rehearsing for performances.  I haven't had enough gumption to go up and grab pics with any of them but I'm building up the nerve for next time.  Oh and the So You Think You Can Dance kids are here too AND they are staying at our hotel....why are they all like 5'0?

When it Rains it Pours!

Those of you who read my last blog post, know that I landed the Young Frankenstein tour!  What you don't know is that I emailed Radio City on Friday telling them of my other offer and received a call from them today. 

Extending me an offer for the Nashville cast of the Christmas Spectacular!!!!!!! The Rockettes have finally said yes!


I can't believe I can go from having nothing for months, to having to choose between two amazing gigs!  The question now, is just which one do I do.  The Rockettes would be from mid-october to december, but the tour runs from Sept-May.  Do I want to get a chance to sing?  Be one of a few dancers or one of many?

Sigh. What a dilemma!

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.