Final Callbacks, Lake DIllon

Final Callbacks for the Lake Dillon Theatre were this past Friday. First, the dance callback. It was a new combination to Mimi's song from Rent, so basically it was shaking your butt and acting sexy: super easy.

Then 2 hours later I came back after a lunch break at Subway, to sing cuts from the shows, but none of us could tell what we were called back for, it was such a mixed-bag of people. I sang "Fallin'" from Smokey Joe's Cafe, with about 10 other girls. They hadn't narrowed down the contenders much for being final callbacks. We were one group of ten, and there were two other groups as well.
After that I was told to stay and read for a play they were producing. No one was asked to read from the musicals all day except the guys- weird. They just sang the girls and then dismissed them.

And that's it. Pretty confusing if you ask me, but you never know.
So now I wait.

Lake Dillon, CO Summer Rep Auditions

Last night we flew back into NYC from LA at midnight, got home at 1am, then I woke up at 7am to for an audition appointment with the Lake Dillon Summer Theatre Season. Their season consists of: Rent, Hair, Smokey Joe's Cafe, 8-Track ( a 70's revue), and Rapunzel (a rock musical).It was held at Chelsea studios. I went in at 9:10am and sang the bridge of "Pocketful of Sunshine" and then they asked me to sing a second song. I chose "Mercy" by Duffy, and both went well. The asked me to come back at 3pm for a dance callback.They also asked me to come tomorrow for a callback for one of their theatrical plays they were also casting! The dance callback today was a simple combination to a song from Smokey Joe's Cafe, and I nailed it! They called me at 8pm tonight to tell me that they want me to come in tomorrow for a final callback: dance from 12-12:30pm, then read and sing from 3-5pm. We'll see! It'd be so nice to book a job on my first audition back from tour and the holidays! I'll keep you posted...

...Spelling Bee musical audition

Since I've been gone for 3 months and I'm about to leave for a week to LA to visit family and friends (and get new headshots!!!!), I thought I should try to throw an audition in the mix just to get back into things. Well it wasn't as easy as I thought it might be.
I woke up at 6:00am and got on the 6:32 A train leaving from my apartment at 185th and Fort Washington Ave. in Washington Heights. The studio I was going to is was Ripley-Grier Studios on 36th St and 8th Ave, which only took be about 30 minutes.

For those of you who don't know the "pecking" order at these auditions, here is a short summary:
Equity Actors with appointments(Actor's union)
Equity Alternates
EMC (Actors who have points towards their union card)
Non-Union Actors (ME)

So I arrived at 7am and things were looking good, since I was #3 on the non-union list. Then at 8am everyone and their mother, father, brother, sister (you get the idea) arrived.

At 9:30am the monitor allowed the non-union actors who had formed a line, to sign in "officially" and then I left at 10am to go back home.
I got ready for the day, and my husband Chris and I met with my sister at MoMA to see the Tim Burton exhibit (because I knew that it would be at least 1pm before they saw non-union actors. I called my friend, Liz Froio to check in and see how things were going, and she said it didn't look good. SO I went back around 2pm to see for myself. She was right. But the audition ended at 4pm, so I thought, "What's 2 hours after I got here so early this morning?" and waited patiently.

The monitor came out of the room at 3pm and told the non-union actors what we didn't want to hear after sticking around for 8 hours: that there was no way they would see non-union today. A few of us spoke to her and asked her if there was any chance at all they might see us at then end, if the magically got through everyone. She said that she would get as many people in as she could, and we were welcome to wait, but it was not likely. So since there was the smallest inkling of hope, I stayed. And then I left a half and hour later when I was absolutely sure it was impossible. How did I know? They turned away the EMC actors too!

So this is my welcome back into the world of auditioning? Thanks a lot New York City. It would be lovely if every actor knew their type so that everyone who was actually right for these roles was seen. Take a Type-Casting class people!

Try try again...next week.

Tour Summary

To sum up my tour, it was a great experience over all, and I'm glad I did it. I think I would do it again if I needed to get my Equity card right away, but I'd have to do it with TheatreWorks, since ArtsPower no longer uses the Equity union. I was very lucky to work with a group of people that I enjoyed working with, and I feel sorry that Chris didn't have a better experience. It was fun to travel to places I've never been (Milwaukee, Chicago, Winston-Salem, Tampa, Savannah, Vermont, Niagara Falls, Boston, and more) I think that was the best part. There were some long travel days which were not so enjoyable in the van, and there were days when we stayed in our motel the whole day because there was nothing around (except for Walmart, of course). But otherwise, I don't have much to complain about. I have also learned that I am not cut out to be the set crew, hauling heavy set pieces and building. God love them, I just don't want to do it again, I've paid my dues!

The biggest 2 things about having completed this tour are:

1. I have a national tour on my resume

2. I have paid my dues!

For other actors/ stage managers who wish to compare ArtsPower and TheatreWorks for possible future employment, here is our experience:

I have to say that ArtsPower seems more organized. They sent us on the road with a blowup mattress in case someone wanted to combine rooms to save money (we had 5 people total, which meant someone had to share a bed, sleep on the blowup, or get their own room- I ended up sharing a bed with a girl who has become a very close friend). Chris had to bring his own blowup mattress which was destroyed by the end of his tour.

Artspower set up our hotels so that we collected points towards free rooms, and we got 4 or 5 free nights out of it! Chris' cast had to figure that out on their own, and it worked but they didn't get as many free nights.

If there was any issue, as individual actors, we could call or email the production manager and discuss it with her. Chris did not know who to call or email when he was having trouble on tour. Artspower as a company is much more personal and takes better care of their actors.

Even though Artspower is non-union now, they STILL follow the Equity rules, which means you get great benefits!

Artspower appreciates their actors: when we had a bad day at a venue because the school forgot to turn off the loud speakers, the morning announcements went off during a show but we kept going. They heard about it at the office and gave us $100 to spend on dinner. We also had a group Halloween costume contest, competing again the other tours that were on the road. We got 2nd place and $50 to spend (as a cast) on anything we wanted. Theatreworks never did anything like this for Chris' cast.

A friend of ours, Abby Stevens, was in the TheatreWorks' cast of Junie B. Jones and has some great Theatreworks stories also, not quite as bad a Chris' but they both had issues with their directors/ choreographers during the rehearsal process.

In closing, I'm sure everyone's experiences will vary on every tour, so this is definitely NOT the say-all, end-all, but it's interesting to know either way.

Tour Update

It's been awhile, but here I am.
Since I last wrote, our stage manager on our tour was replaced after she had an allergic reaction to a virus. Strange but true, and she's doing better now, but still recovering and so we needed a replacement. Our new SM, is GREAT! Her name is Bernadette and it has been a pleasure to work with her.

We are currently in Vidalia, GA home of the sweet onion. But there's nothing to do here except go to Walmart, and we did that the first night, so today we drove an hour and a half to Savannah, GA. What an amazing town! I can't wait to go back. We started our day by having the Sunday Buffet at Paula Deen's restaurant, "Lady and Sons". Appartenly it's so popular that you can only make day-of, in-person reservations, but we had no trouble, thank goodness. My plate was filled with Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Poptatoes, Fried Chicken, Green Beans, Mac & Cheese, Cheese Biscuits, and BBQ Beef. All homemade with LOTS of salt, sugar, and butter, MMMM!!!

Then we walked around to lots of boutique shops, antique shops, vintage stores, and even got a private tour of the Pirates House! It was a beautiful day to walk down next to the river, down cobblestone streets and see the city decorated for Christmas. Again I emphasize: I can't wait to go back!

Tomorrow we have two performances (should be interesting in the little one-horse town) then it's off to Tifton, GA and then to FLORIDA!!! It's getting warmer by the minute, and I don't miss the snowy 30 degree weather going on in NYC right now, at all.

More to come. See my pictures!

On the Road Again...

Well it's been awhile since I've written a blog, but I've been at home in the city, free to be home and lazy when I'm not working. Actually, I've been enjoying time with my husband and puppy! But alas, the road has called to me again, and we're on the road tomorrow through Tuesday. Not very long, and actually, I'm glad to be away if that means the 6am calls will STOP! I've been getting up at 4:45am every morning but one this week, and it has NOT been fun. The subways have caused me to be late twice and have not worked normally ONCE this week (you can tell by my use of CAPS that I am irritated, right? haha).
We're going near Boston tomorrow and then to Vermont on Sunday. I'll update with blog with my adventures so stay tuned!

Long Days

We've traveled 7 hours out of our way for 1 show in Iowa City, IA. We're staying in Cedar Rapids, which is about an hour away, I have no idea why we're here, I can't imagine that they're making any money off of this 1 show.

Then, after our show we begin our 700+ mile drive to Buffalo, NY for 2 shows. Then we're finally going home for a little while! So it's a 500+ mile drive from Buffalo to NYC. Sheesh. It's going to be a long 4 days ahead of us, but we're all dying to go home!

Chris gets home tomorrow, lucky dog. Speaking of which, I miss my dog!!!
So as you can tell, I'm just plain homesick and plain sick of traveling. Staying at the Econo Lodge doesn't help the situation.

Well now I'm done whining, I hope you're happy. It's our day off, and we're going to go to the mall and see a movie, because that's all there is to do around here. But I have to say I am excited about seeing Niagara Falls for the first time!

Below is a picture that made the front of the local paper in Springfield, IL! This was at Lincoln's home and the historic area where he lived before he was President. We took a free tour of his home and saw the tomb where he was buried.