Let The Sun Shine In

Goodness, a month since I last posted! I guess I really have been keeping myself busy.

So where did I leave off... Thanksgiving was a success! All of the residents of my house plus Evan, and our friends Ken and Katie who had just moved to town from New Jersey, went to the house of Quiggs (Sarah Quiqqley) and Sebastian. We all had certain dishes assigned to make, and we ended up with a lot of amazing food! There were drinks and boardgames and seasonal movies... it was great.

I've gone on a few auditions here and there in the past few weeks, none that I think went particularly well. One comes to mind - it was for a children's show that travels in the San Diego area. The casting director was Michael Donovan. I've always wanted to work with him, he does a lot of stuff out here, namely musicals. I showed up to the audition space to find a few dozen young girls in ballet attire. Thinking I had gone to the wrong studio, I went to my car to check my information. When I realized I hadn't brought it, I just sat in the car wondering if I should a) go to the other studio nearby and see if the auditions were being held there, b)go back inside and search for signs that i was in the right place, or c) just go home. As I was about to start my car, I got a call from an unknown number, It was someone from Michael Donovan casting, wondering if I was still coming. I said I was on my way, I had "hit a little traffic", and I made sure I was at the right place (which I was). At that point I was a little flustered and it affected my audition. I sang the wrong cut of one of my songs, I stood stiff as a board while singing, and I stumbled over the lines even though I had the paper in my hand. They were very nice and thanked me for coming in, but I'm not surprised that I didn't hear back about it. Oh well, you can't win them all.

A few days ago I checked out the casting call section on the webpage for the stage actors union. I saw there was an audition for the replacements of the Broadway cast of Hair, being held today. I prepared and got the sheet music for a song I already knew from around the era, Me And Bobby McGee. When I showed up a little after 9 this morning there was already a line formed outside. The actual audition process didn't start until 10, but they let us in around 9:20 to sign in and get comfortable. My position in line was #75, so I had some time to read and relax and convince my nerves I'd be ok without them. One of the casting directors spoke to all of us before they started seeing people. She let us know that the current Broadway cast will be going to England to continue performing, so they will be casting the whole show. She also let us know that about a third of those people were cast from a non-union open call, like this one. That's great news to hear. of course there's the non-equity people in New York too, but it gave us all a feeling that there was a better chance of actually being cast in the show.

I saw a few people there that I had worked with or gone to school with. One of them told me that a mutual friend of ours had auditioned the day before and gotten a callback for Saturday. It's nice to know that they're doing the callbacks so soon after the initial audition. In face, it's nice to know when the callbacks are at all! In many cases, you're in and out and that's that. You keep on moving, and if you hear something back - great. Hopefully I'll hear something back... My song went well. There was one point where my voice cracked a tiny bit, but other than that I think I was pretty strong. I should know by tonight whether or not I'm what they're looking for.

I also saw one of my former RENT castmates. We chatted for a bit after I was finished. He told me that he met up with Ron, the director of RENT, not too long ago. Among other things they talked about the upcoming production of RENT that Ron will be directing. He said initially the production company was all for bringing in the entire Alabama cast, but for possible legal reasons the have to cast some locals. But that means the producers liked what they saw, and if Ron's still on our side I think the chances are pretty good that many of us who are still interested in doing this production will be cast.