The Sound of Music

I auditioned today for The Sound Of Music which will be rehearsing in New York City, then previews in Tampa and finally goes to Atlanta TOTS (Theatre of the Stars), which is a HUGE equity house, and a lot of Broadway alums have performed there. I have heard amazing things about this director so it was a big audition for me.

I went to the Equity Chorus Call audition on Tuesday, only to hear at 6:30pm that they weren't going to see non-equity. However, as a reward for waiting all day until the very end, they took our headshots and said that they would call us in to audition Friday (today), and that's what happened- this NEVER happens!!! Very exciting.

So today there were probably 50 or so non-equity girls auditioning, and they were having kids and equity callbacks later that afternoon and into the evening, so who knows how this whole process works.

I went in and sang "Sixteen going on Seventeen" since I'm too young for any adult role and too old for any other child roles. I knew the accompanist, (which is always a help and a relief) Julie Bearden, and she said they actually hadn't heard that song much, which was a huge and wonderful surprise to me!
After I was done, they asked me my height. I figured they wouldn't ask if they didn't like me, because they would care. I went out and asked the girl who went in before me (who was very good but not my type), if they asked her the same thing. She said yes. Then I asked the girl behind me, (whom I didn't hear but is the same type- blonde, same height, etc). She said no, they didn't ask her height. So I figure that's a good thing for me! Yay! Success!

So we'll see if anything happens from here...

Grease National Tour Auditions

Here is the scoop from the Grease call today.

I got there at 7:00am, and was done at 5:00pm.

The first thing they did was type-cast everyone because there were over 500 people there in the end. After they typed, we guessed there were about 80 people left.

They brought us in to dance in two groups for 40 people each.
The combo was fast-paced but technically easy, it was to the hand jive. We performed the dance in smaller groups of 4.

Then they made another cut, and I was asked to stay and sing 16 bars of a pop song appropriate to the show. I sang a cut from "One Night With You" from All Shook Up, and I felt that it went really well. They were cutting some girls off early, but they let me sing the whole thing. Not sure what that means, but they asked me to stay and dance again!

It was now down to 39 people I counted in the room. The choreographer added on to the dance combination we learned earlier, about 4 8-counts more. Added a high kick, some more rhythm stuff, and after each group was done, each person was asked to do a double pirouette. We performed the dance this time in groups of 3.

After we were done dancing we gathered in the holding room. A casting assistant called up some girls to read and sing tomorrow, mostly Jan-looking, none of them my type as far as I could tell. Dave Clemmons came out with two groups of headshots. I was in the first group, and a friend of mine was in the second. Dave told my group that that's all they needed today, he's not sure where we'll go from here but he is putting us in his file for this show and for future shows as well. The second group was told that they needed to sing for the director because he wasn't there when they sang before. Not sure if he saw me already or not...

So I'm concluding that I didn't get anything, at least for now, because I got the impression that they weren't looking for all the roles, although I think they were looking for ensemble, but I'm still confused. You never know, I guess.

The choreographer happened to be the assistant to Kathleen Marshall from the workshop that I did just about a month ago! She is super cool and it'd be amazing to work with her, she's been on Broadway since she was 18! Not sure if she recognized me or not, but she kept me for a long time.

I am proud of myself for getting that far, it was definitely a big step for me, and I feel like it was a great audition day. Back to the grind tomorrow.

Audition MADNESS!!!

It's been awhile since I've blogged, and here is the reason why: I've been auditioning like CRAZY!

In the past three weeks, I've calculated that I've been to about 20 auditions, callbacks, dance calls, etc. All the while, trying to make rent whenever I can fit work it in, and my weekends have been busy with Cabaret in the West Village.

These past few weeks of auditions have been particularly stressful and time-consuming because it's spring break for many schools this month, so we've been invaded by high school and college-aged kids, dreaming of getting a summer job. BUT I HAVE ALREADY GRADUATED, PUT IN MY SCHOOL DUES, and I NEED A JOB!!! I just want to scream at them. They show up at 4:00am (or earlier in some cases), and sign up themselves, along with 20 of their friends who don't show up until the audition begin at 10am. So When I show up at 6:00am, I am somewhere in the 120s! It has been mass chaos, unorganized mayhem. But I am forced to put up with it so that I can get a summer stock job.

I just want a few EMC points (points towards my Equity card) so that I can get into Equity calls, and avoid the open calls at ALL COST. But I have to get into Equity calls to get the Equity shows, to get Equity points. So it' a vicious cycle!

Chris and I have had the opportunity to audition together a few times (one of us goes in before the other, and it's obvious by our names and rings that we're married). It's funny, casting directors usually love it, but we've found a few people that seem to not go for it. Boo. It'd be nice to work together.

It is our final weekend of Cabaret, our final performance is Sunday at 3pm. I have several friends coming this evening which will be fun! There are also a number of agents and casting directors attending this weekend.

I was cast in a regional theatre production of the play The Little Dog Laughed, in Dillon, Colorado (on Lake Dillon). It's about 1 1/2 hours outside of Denver, and the contract is from April 24- May 30th, and it's pretty good pay for a non-union theatre, so I'm excited! I'm also excited to be in a play again.

I've decided I want to start going out for cruise lines. I think if I'm going to do it at some point in my life, I want to do it now, because we need the money. One 6-month cruise could put us completely out of debt. AMAZING! The pay is incredible, you get an end-of-contract bonus, and everything is paid for- everything! All you do is save and come back with a huge wad of cash!

Okay that's my update. More later. Off to Cabaret.

Cabaret Rehearsals

Tonight will be my second rehearsal for Cabaret in the West Village. I really like the choreographer. She has a lot of connections at a lot of union theatres, so I will definitely stay on her good side! She is also giving us discounts to take her dance classes on Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons for Tap and Theatre Dance. That's exciting, because classes normally run $15/ class, and now we can take them for $7/ class!
Yesterday we learned the opening number and the "money" song, and now we will review those numbers and hopefully start another number. I think overall this will be a good experience, even if it's just networking with people in the business, you never know who you will meet.

Cabaret

Should be an interesting experience. I only hope the 4 and 1/2 hour callback doesn't reflect what our rehearsals will be like. We don't get paid anything except that we'll recieve a ticket code, so that when we advertise, we tell people to use that code, and we'll get $5 per ticket (at $25 per ticket). I'm a Kit Kat Girl, one of the Klub girls, and it will be a good dance show for me, ANDI will be playing the violin as well. There will be beer and wine service, and it's in a good location (the West Village). They are very understanding about conflicts since they're not paying us anything, which seems fair. There were a tons of girls who auditioned, so I feel lucky to have an opportunity to perform in the city, even though it isn't the biggest credit of my life. Experience is experience, and exposure is good.
I'll be blogging a bunch, I'm sure.
Plus, I'll be auditioning for summer theatre at the same time. Cabaret goes up the second weekend of March runs 3 weekends, Thurs, Fri, and Sat at 8pm, Sun at 2pm?

Student Films

Today I auditioned for 3 student films at the New York Film Academy in Union Square, and I have another on Monday. It's always kind of awkward auditioning for student films because you never know who you'll be working with, or if the script you'll be handed will be any good at all. I've had good and bad experiences, and I have to say that this was actually a good experience!
They were all very professional, encouraging, and friendly.

The reason I am auditioning for student films is to get as much on-camera experience as possible, and to get some good-quality material for my reel, which will eventually be on my website.

Bad Audition Day

Today was a bad audition day, but I am not discouraged! I knew it was too easy that I had gotten all the way to final callbacks on the first audition back from tour...

First I auditioned for the Jenny Wiley Theatre in Kentucky. One of their shows is Cinderella, which I thought I'd be good for now that I'm blonde. I also thought I could just pull "In My Own Little Corner" out of my pocket, without ever hearing the piano part, and use it for the audition. BAD IDEA! The accompanist was not very confident, and I was NOT confident, so it was the softest, quietest version ever. My friends outside the room couldn't even hear me- WHAT? It wasn't bad, but it wasn't hear either...

So I took it as a "warm up" and decide to kick some butt at the next audition.

I had an appointment for 2pm for FAME at Nola Studios. I was singing Vanessa Carlton's "Ordinary Day". The character I was auditioning for was shy and sweet, so I thought the song was appropriate. After I finished what I thought was a great audition, the director looked at me and said, "Kelsey, that was a great acting piece, but I would recommend using a song that showed more range, because I can tell there is a lot more to your voice. That said, it was a GREAT vocal audition, but I think you could find something that showed a bigger range vocally". SO I thought he was going to call me back because I thought if he was interested, he would want to hear me sing something else to prove that I had something with range. But NO. No callback. Weird.

So I guess that song will be taken out of my book. Right now.

Bad Day. Moving on- Yay!