So, last night was another audition in another town. Yes, I was cuing some EVITA in my head when I typed that, where did that come from???
Anyway, The Drama Group in Chicago Heights had auditions Thursday night and I figured "what the hey!" Let me first say that I had NO CLUE where Chicago Heights was and the good folks at Google Maps, which is usually a trusted friend, completely failed me this time. FYI, Chicago Heights is a southern suburb, it might be south-west, but I am not that geographically gifted. Anyway, I was told to get on IL-394, which I never saw....instead I stayed on 57 and hoped I would see a sign for one of the roads I was told to get off on. After seeing cornfields, I decided I needed to get my happy, citified bottom off of the highway and into a service station for directions. Thankfully, the guy behind the counter had a clue where I was going and got me there very easily! So, I ended up at The Drama Group for my audition.
What a crowd! There were 3x as many people for this audition as there were for the last one. In all, they auditioned 79 people for 20 parts between two nights of auditions. It was a good crowd, everyone was really friendly and I met some really cool people whilst waiting for my turn to audition. I kind of started to feel bad for the director and others in the audition room, because you HAD to sing a song from the show. Well, Maureen and Joanne really only have one number for the girls to choose from, so "Take Me or Leave Me" was heard multiple times, and yes, that is what I sang (Joanne's part). Next time I audition for this show I am going to HUNT for a copy of the score so I can do "We're OK", just to be different!
I am not going to lie, somehow I allowed myself to get a little bit psyched out. I was hoping and praying I could remember my first note and got a little nervous. Went in, spoke to Mark, the accompanist, said hello to the panel at the table and started. I just let myself belt that sucker out. According to Stephanie (later on her), I sounded good and she could hear me through the door! When I finished, they asked me what a "Reindeer Swing" was (from Disney) and how tall I was. I was the tallest freaking person there last night! They asked all of us to say so they could see us all in a line-up and form stage pictures.
When they finished with the stage pictures they asked 3 girls and a couple of guys to stick around. They paired Steph with each of the girls to do the duet portion of "Take Me or Leave Me." Steph played Joanne in her High Schools production of RENT and knocked it out, the 2 girls were a little weak, but had potential. The guys were kept to do "I'll Cover You".
Steph came in for Kenosha, WISCONSIN (she crazy) for the audition. She is starting Columbia in the fall and I offered to give her a ride to the train station, and then said, how about if I just take you to Union Station so you don't have to stand on the train platform by yourself at 11pm. OMG, we hit it off! I had her laughing so hard, it was great. She kept telling me that I am so getting cast because I had a rich, soulful voice that she would kill to have. Uhm..... ok?? I am not counting my chickens or anything like that, but it was nice to have someone boost me, cuz I don't know how I really sound when I sing. I know I let the director know that I would be honored to have any part in the show.
Anyway, it was fun, I learned that I need to keep my confidence level up at auditions and not let myself get psyched out by others and that I cannot get in my head when my brain wants to forget the lyrics so that I reach the point where I look ABOVE the directors head and don't quite act out the lyrics.
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