A New Experience (the explanation is three-fold...)
I had an audition yesterday.
That part wasn't new. Done auditions before. Granted, not tons of them in recent years. I auditioned only once for the Neil Simon Festival in 2005 (after a 7 year break from theatre during which time I gestated repeatedly). After that I continued to get cast at the Neil Simon Festival without having to audition again (hair flip).
I did have one other audition since the '05 Neil Simon audition. It was for the Utah Shakespeare Festival which is stationed in Cedar City. It was December of 2010. I was called on a Wednesday and asked if i could be at the L.A. audition on that upcoming Monday.
You have to be invited to audition for the festival. Also, only Equity actors are given an audition time in Cedar- the same town the festival is in. Also, this was the first year in a long time they'd given locals the opportunity to audition... albeit in L.A.
So when i got the call with the invitation to audition, I couldn't really say no. What I thought was, I'm a single mom with very little funds, and it's two weeks till Christmas. But what I said was, "Of course!"
It's just business, you know. So I did the 7 hour drive twice, up and back, within 24 hours. I brought one of my 4 kids with me.
I didn't get cast.
I would have taken any crap part they could offer. I also was a permanent resident of Cedar City, so they wouldn't have had to house me.
And my audition was pretty dang good. With my lack of significant audition experience since motherhood, I was taken slightly off guard when I became aware of them writing notes and referring to my resume during my monologues (I'd forgotten that is just a normal part of auditioning). At any rate, I knocked my song out of the park. Like out of the mother freakin' Dodger Stadium. Whatevsies.
Then there was yesterday.
My new experience.
Here's the 3 Fold Thing:
1) My first California audition (I don't count the Utah Shakes Fest audition as a California audition)
2) My first Disney audition
3) My first audition in which I had to wait 7 1/2 hours for my turn after arriving at the venue at 9:45am
Auditions were held at the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studios in North Hollywood. I had stayed the night with Wagamama in Santa Monica the night before, which perhaps cut out 45 minutes of driving the morning of the aud. I hadn't been able to fall asleep until 3. I stayed on an air mattress which decided to deflate around 5:30am What a mess.
When I arrived at 9:45, the sign-in room was already packed.
Sign-ups started at 9:30.
I was number 134 on the list.
I found out one girl had gotten there at 4:30am to get in line and was number 12. So there ya go.
Just the same, I was excited to be there. The energy of all those auditioners reminded me of speech tournaments in high school (also because most of those kids yesterday were just barely out of high school). I wasn't nervous at all, even though it seemed that I was the oldest one there.
Then after about an hour of waiting, I was over it. I have no idea how I killed time until 3:15pm when my name was finally called. I have no idea how I didn't go crazy, either.
There was a lounge area with 2 pots of coffee and the fixin's. There was a sign about the pots that said, "Please deposit a quarter into the box for a cup of coffee." So I deposited a quarter, and had 4 cups of coffee. Cause, you know, free refills.
My name was called. I walked into the audition room with the casting director of the whole Disneyland Resort, the director of the show itself, and the show's music director. Upon crossing the threshold, I gave them an enthusiastic "Hey!", sang my song, and after the first note came out of my mouth I knew that they knew I wasn't getting a call back .
Looking back, the song did not showcase my voice well. I focused more on choosing a song from the time period of the show, which is usually a great idea if it shows off the best of your vocal talent. And the only form of energy that I had to draw on was a cup of coffee I'd had an hour before. Excuses. Excuses. Lessons learned. Great experience. Very glad I did it.
Plus, hey, here's the thing- my first California audition is over. There'll never be another one ever again. I'm glad about that, too.
Did I fail to mention that the night before this I was in Beverly Hills with Wagamama at a private screening of Sleepwalk With Me? Did I also leave out that Tom Hanks was there? Oh, and Tim Robbins, too. And Weird Al Yankovich. Also, the moderator of the Q&A was Joss Whedon, who I met. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
p.s. he told the story of how the shawarma scene came to be.
That part wasn't new. Done auditions before. Granted, not tons of them in recent years. I auditioned only once for the Neil Simon Festival in 2005 (after a 7 year break from theatre during which time I gestated repeatedly). After that I continued to get cast at the Neil Simon Festival without having to audition again (hair flip).
I did have one other audition since the '05 Neil Simon audition. It was for the Utah Shakespeare Festival which is stationed in Cedar City. It was December of 2010. I was called on a Wednesday and asked if i could be at the L.A. audition on that upcoming Monday.
You have to be invited to audition for the festival. Also, only Equity actors are given an audition time in Cedar- the same town the festival is in. Also, this was the first year in a long time they'd given locals the opportunity to audition... albeit in L.A.
So when i got the call with the invitation to audition, I couldn't really say no. What I thought was, I'm a single mom with very little funds, and it's two weeks till Christmas. But what I said was, "Of course!"
It's just business, you know. So I did the 7 hour drive twice, up and back, within 24 hours. I brought one of my 4 kids with me.
I didn't get cast.
I would have taken any crap part they could offer. I also was a permanent resident of Cedar City, so they wouldn't have had to house me.
And my audition was pretty dang good. With my lack of significant audition experience since motherhood, I was taken slightly off guard when I became aware of them writing notes and referring to my resume during my monologues (I'd forgotten that is just a normal part of auditioning). At any rate, I knocked my song out of the park. Like out of the mother freakin' Dodger Stadium. Whatevsies.
Then there was yesterday.
My new experience.
Here's the 3 Fold Thing:
1) My first California audition (I don't count the Utah Shakes Fest audition as a California audition)
2) My first Disney audition
3) My first audition in which I had to wait 7 1/2 hours for my turn after arriving at the venue at 9:45am
Auditions were held at the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studios in North Hollywood. I had stayed the night with Wagamama in Santa Monica the night before, which perhaps cut out 45 minutes of driving the morning of the aud. I hadn't been able to fall asleep until 3. I stayed on an air mattress which decided to deflate around 5:30am What a mess.
When I arrived at 9:45, the sign-in room was already packed.
Sign-ups started at 9:30.
I was number 134 on the list.
I found out one girl had gotten there at 4:30am to get in line and was number 12. So there ya go.
Just the same, I was excited to be there. The energy of all those auditioners reminded me of speech tournaments in high school (also because most of those kids yesterday were just barely out of high school). I wasn't nervous at all, even though it seemed that I was the oldest one there.
Then after about an hour of waiting, I was over it. I have no idea how I killed time until 3:15pm when my name was finally called. I have no idea how I didn't go crazy, either.
There was a lounge area with 2 pots of coffee and the fixin's. There was a sign about the pots that said, "Please deposit a quarter into the box for a cup of coffee." So I deposited a quarter, and had 4 cups of coffee. Cause, you know, free refills.
My name was called. I walked into the audition room with the casting director of the whole Disneyland Resort, the director of the show itself, and the show's music director. Upon crossing the threshold, I gave them an enthusiastic "Hey!", sang my song, and after the first note came out of my mouth I knew that they knew I wasn't getting a call back .
Looking back, the song did not showcase my voice well. I focused more on choosing a song from the time period of the show, which is usually a great idea if it shows off the best of your vocal talent. And the only form of energy that I had to draw on was a cup of coffee I'd had an hour before. Excuses. Excuses. Lessons learned. Great experience. Very glad I did it.
Plus, hey, here's the thing- my first California audition is over. There'll never be another one ever again. I'm glad about that, too.
Did I fail to mention that the night before this I was in Beverly Hills with Wagamama at a private screening of Sleepwalk With Me? Did I also leave out that Tom Hanks was there? Oh, and Tim Robbins, too. And Weird Al Yankovich. Also, the moderator of the Q&A was Joss Whedon, who I met. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
p.s. he told the story of how the shawarma scene came to be.
There will be more. X
ReplyDeleteThe 7 1/2 hr wait... any time it's a Disney audition expect at least that. Disney auditions are nuts. Congrats on making it through your first Cali audition!
ReplyDelete