Audition #5 aka Rent Redux

I am a couple days late posting the recap, but in the excitement of prepping for my weekend in New Orleans I haven't had time or the desire to update on my last audition.

Tuesday saw me heading to Winnetka (northern suburb) for my audition. It was the first time I had seen Joanne listed as an Alto (the last call and the next were Mezzo), but as always, I just wanted the experience. Especially since the sheet music for my "rock" song did not come in until about 3 that afternoon! Oh, the song was "Wonder" by Natalie Merchant which is one of my favorite to sing. But what I did not like was getting it so late so I couldn't go to Old Town and at least plunk out the melody on the piano. So, the first time I heard it on piano was when the accompanist played it.

Anyway, I Google mapped my way and set out for the foreign environs of ... Winnetka. Ok, the audition was in this BEAUTIFUL old building! I get in and do the one thing I probably shouldn't have but a group of us just started talking and normally that might have psyched me out, but it actually relaxed me. Not going to make a habit of it, but it was fun.

Well, I get called into the room, which was HUGE!! Walk to the accompanist and give him my 2 pieces of music. I give him the ballad first which would be my 2nd song (Not That Girl from WICKED) and he does the tempo check like his house was on fire! I told him to slow it down to music box speed and start singing a bit with him. Then I hand him Wonder, which he plays slow. OY! Through singing through a bit of it, leading him through the repeats and coda's and helping him figure out the roadmap of the piece, I walk to the mark.

I came in with heels on, but I said "If you don't mind, I am going to go from a really impressive height to a not-quite-as-impressive-but-still-pretty-impressive height" before kicking them off. At this point I sing Wonder and it was ok. I am going to chalk the not good parts of it to the fact that I have only sung it to the CD. I get done and I am asked to pick a phrase and sing it full out. So I took a deep breath and just let it go. That felt so good. Then they thanked me and I went to change for the dance portion.

For the dance I am starting off by thanking Disney for teaching me how to pick up basic choreography really quick and then perform it. They took 8 of us in and we learned 8 8-counts. And then had what seemed like an hour to go over the routine, which gave lots of time to ask questions and get stuff down. When the director finally came in, they split the room in half to perform it and I was in the second group. I made a couple of minor mistakes that I KNEW I would correct when they had us run it again (first group ran it twice), but they said "Thank You" after one go round. *sigh* Well, the choreographer HAD watched us run it for an hour, so she knows what we can do. And, they put my info second from the top, right under the best male dancer in the room, so that is a positive, right??

One thing I really got out of this is that I chatter when I nervous. Not always a bad thing, but in the future I am going to work on doing a little less of it. Also, keep working on the music with a piano. But, all in all, it was another positive audition and I got something else out of it.