A Sweet New Year!

It's Rosh Hashana and I rang in the Jewish New Year by taking a trip back to Philly to be with my family for the high holiday. It was a bitter sweet reunion, since this is the first holiday without my grandmother "Mom Mom" who passed away this past May.

Since starting this blog, I have yet to take a day off from being proactive, but since this is a holiday, I deemed it appropriate. (Not that I am the most religious person in the world. I really consider myself more spiritual than religious.)

But hey, it's my blog! I make the rules!

Happy 5769! Catch you on the flip side!

Neeee-eeeewwww Voice Excercises

"So, what are we working on today?" asked my voice teacher at this morning's much anticipated lesson. I immediately presented him with my list of audition notices as well as the requirements for each. I was determined to make the most of my hour-long lesson.

For the first audition requiring 16 bars traditional B-way (ballad or up tempo) to show range & reflect style of the show, NO POP or ROCK - he suggested I start with "Journey From The Past" and "Someone to Watch Over Me"

I sang the latter for him, and it needed a bit of help since it is a song that is supposed to sit more legit. I have been utilizing a more pop/belty sound in recent years, so my legit sound is in need of a reawakening.

In order to help this, my teacher prescribed a few neeeee-eeew vocal exercises - one of which involves making a neeee-oooo or neeee-eeeeww type sound in a voice mimicking a sob. The point of this is to help tip the larynx forward to give a more clear and supported sound on my high notes. I am to practice this exercise at least once a day for a minimum of 10 minutes. It's a pretty fun exercise and there's even a silent version of it that I can do on the subway or walking around the streets of Manhattan. I've already started practicing this bizarre sound around my boyfriend - the audible one, not the silent one because, what's the fun of that? ;-)

Moving on, we examined some material for another show that is asking to see, hear, touch and feel 16 bars of a pop song or musical theater pop song showing range. For this one I practiced a little "Smash the Mirror" from The Who's Tommy. Btw - have you heard that the original Broadway cast is reuniting for a one-night concert revival of the show on December 15th? How awesome is that??? Tommy is probably my all time favorite Broadway show & "the role of the mother is a dream role of mine" I revealed to my teacher, so it goes without saying that I love singing "Smash the Mirror."

Another audition piece down, my teacher suggested that we tackle a piece that it entirely new to me: "You're Gonna Dance With Me, Willy" from the lesser known musical, "Hazel Flagg." It's a tricky little bright and up beat musical theater song, which once again required a few exercises to oil the chords and un-stick some notes, however, once I got on a roll I really started to jive with it.

There's no doubt that I have a lot to work on in the next couple of weeks to prepare myself for some auditions! I definitely have my work cut out for me, but my book is starting to look really good. On an amazing journey, together we ride!

Musical Review

I have another voice lesson scheduled for tomorrow morning so I used this not-so-sunny Sunday to go through and do another review of my sheet music. Assembling an audition book can be a lot of fun and I'm enthusiastic about adding more and more music into my repertoire.

Right now each of my songs fall into several categories:

* Traditional Musical Theater Up tempo
* Traditional Musical Theater Ballad
* Musical Theater Pop
* Contemporary Pop
* 60s Pop
* 80s Pop

The upcoming auditions call for the following:

* Prepare 16 bars that best shows voice, appropriate to the theatre’s season.

* Please prepare 16 bars of a pop song or a musical theatre pop song showing range

* Please prepare two 16-bar cuts of traditional Broadway music (ballad or up-tempo) that show humor and range and reflect the style of the show

I leave it to my teacher to help me find just the right pieces. It's all a matter of finding the winning combination!

Getting On The Ball

Unfortunately Thursday's audition didn't drum up any business, so the search for success continues. You know that old saying, if at first you don't succeed...la, la, la, la, la (yeah, that one. I like old sayings.) Well it's high time to raise my batting average and the only way to do that is by giving myself more opportunities at bat. (If there's one thing I like more than old sayings, it's baseball analogies.)

Today I took advantage of my wide open Saturday to do an in depth audition search on sites like actorsequity.org and playbill.com, which happily yielded several results. I created a list for myself of audition dates and the styles of songs each call requires which will be helpful to my voice teacher when I enlist his help to work on appropriate material for each audition.
This is exciting!

In the coming weeks, my hope is to go on at least 3 or 4 auditions a week instead of one or two. It's true that I've taken some licks and swung and missed a few in the past couple of weeks, but I just know I've got a home run or two in me yet! Let's play!

Back in the Spotlight!

Performances


This evening yielded two separate performance opportunities, the first of which was The Spotlight with Sean Taylor and the second, The Made-Up Musical!

Both productions took place at my old stomping ground, the Magnet Theater. I arrived to the theater just in time to change into my clothes (incidentally the same dress I had worn to my audition the other day) and get set for the first of the shows.

In "The Spotlight" I serve as the commercial jingle girl and musical guest. Before the show we ask the audience to write in suggestions of song titles and products such as "Tide" or "Spam" and then when called upon by the host, the bandleader and I improvise a short and sa-weet 30-second commercial break.

Tonight's commercial suggestions were "chicken nuggets" and "Under Your Bed, Bed and Breakfast." The second of the two I sang in my Shakira voice at the request of host Sean Taylor. For the big finish, we used a final audience suggestion of a made-up song title: "Check That Mystery Guest" which ended up being a bouncy 50s-esque tune. Admittedly, not my best spot song ever, but it elicited enough laughs from the audience to make me feel satisfied.

Overall "The Spotlight" had a really successful night, flowing spotlessly from interview to improv to commercial break and back again. The interviews and improv were hilarious and the audience was with us all the way.

After taking an hour long break between shows, I returned to the Magnet for "The Made-Up Musical." We had a pretty full cast this evening, and unfortunately not quite as full an audience. The seven of us on stage came close to outnumbering our audience members.

Nonetheless, those in attendance were treated to a really strong and funny show thanks to great players and a fun suggestion from a French Canadian woman ex-rodeo star who used to live in a small town near mile zero of the Alaskan Highway.

As always, doing the TMUM was great fun and hopefully the few newcomers will be back and bring some more of their friends along with them. Overall feedback was really glowing: one audience member told me that I was amazing. (...Okay, it was my boyfriend - but he's only a little bit biased.)

Absinthe-minded!

This afternoon I hopped the 4 train down to Fulton Street and walked/jogged the five or six cobblestone-paved city streets of lower Manhattan (in my black heels, mind you) to the audition venue at South Street Seaport.

When I arrived I was directed to a holding area where four or five other girls were waiting to be called upon. This is one of those absurd realities of the entertainment industry. You're constantly face to face with your competition. I used to find this a bit unnerving, but I just smile and say hello and try to behave like a normal person. More often than not I have found that everyone behaves in a pleasant and civil manner while we all secretly size each other up. I mean, not that I'm sizing people up. I'm totally confident in myself, yeah! I don't need to size anyone up - no, not me! I'm totally confident in myself, yeah... that's me! (whew!)

Yeah, "normal" is such a relative term.

Despite the fact that I was in a room with several other girls who were all after the same cool job, I felt okay. Several of us made small talk about the show and what we did around town while one girl pulled out all the stops by festooning herself in a burlesque costume of scarves, glitter, gold sequin pasties, bells and all! (Was I a little threatened by this act of going above and beyond? Maybe a little - but shredding up my pretty dress to make boob tassels was definitely a last resort.)

She really was there with bells on!

One of the women who had seen the show, was describing the type of music that the Cabaret singer sang in the show. Apparently the songs were a little more rock n' roll (ie Janice Joplin's "Bobby McGee") and a little less Cabaret standard (ie "Fever" by Peggy Lee.) This made me think again about singing a Tori Amos song.

I was fifth in line to go on, so I had to take decisive action. Either I sing from my CD or ask to sing "If Love Is A Red Dress" a capella. That song seemed to me the perfect blend of blues and jazz and rock n' roll and cabaret all rolled into one, so I was hoping that they would agree to it.

When it was my turn to go, I entered the audition space which had the feel of a circus tent with Cabaret style seating and a small round stage in the center beneath a tented roof. I handed the tech guy who was manning the sound board my CD of tracks, but warned that I might not be making use of it after all.

Once in front of the audition panel which consisted of the Producer, Casting Director and Emcee of the show, I asked them if they preferred that I sing with a track.
"Whichever you feel shows you off best," said the Producer.

And so away I went, with my number one choice "If Love Is A Red Dress."

At the end the Producer came down from his post in the back of the theater, which I took to be a good sign.
"What do you do in New York?" he asked.
"I perform a lot of musical improv," I replied.
"Sounds terrifying!" he said.

Hard to tell how this will pan out, but all in all I think that my audition went well. The panel of three were very friendly and kind which made the audition a very pleasant and fun experience. The show sounds like a blast and I would love to be a part of it so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

When I returned to the holding area, another girl who was waiting to go in for her audition said,
"I think I heard you. Were you hitting some higher notes in there? You sounded great!"
"Thank you," I said. "That's really nice of you to say."

Feeling satisfied that I had put my best foot forward in the audition, I headed back up town to work. When I had a few moments to spare here and there, I took a second, third and fourth look at the song that I'm writing for "The Spotlight" on November 7th. I had another band practice tonight, and this time I planned on being prepared with something that the guys could work with.

People always say, "write what you know" so that's just what I did. The song is basically an autobiographical tune about myself (yes, I'm afraid I am that egocentric.) Here are a few lyrics to give you a taste of my ego and eccentricity...

Ever since I was a little girl
No one doubted I could dream,
Everywhere I went I knew just
how to make a scene

Sometimes I'd sit and watch myself cry
In the mirror for an hour or three
You might think that was a waste of time
but not for this drama queen

Chorus:
Because I just wanted to be a little bit famous
(I could taste it in my tears)
Yeah I just wanted to be a little bit famous
(Yeah I cried for my own entertainment)

Well I grew up, as an only child
I could be quiet and I could be mild
But when there was a gathering of the family
I had an audience and I was free to be me!

I would sing at any chance
That would come my way
I even wrote a little Oscar speech
So I'd be prepared for that day

Chorus:
Because I just wanted to be a little bit famous
(singing in the living room)
Yeah I just wanted to be a little bit famous
(I still feel like I grew up a little too soon)

Now I'm grown and I still wanna see my full name up in lights,
Although it would be fine by me if the marquis is not that bright...

And so on and so forth. I think it paints a truthful, but fairly amusing picture of my life and how I came to be where I am today. After playing it a couple times through, my guitarist remarked, "You know, I think I've learned more about you from this song than I have in all of our conversations in the past year." Cool! Then I'm on the right track! Our studio session was pretty successful and while I have some verses to add and lyrics to adjust, I think we're more than half way there. Perhaps I'll try to find a clever and not-so-subtle way of mentioning my blog in the song. (what, too much?) Anyway, we'll likely only have one or two more rehearsals before the big day - but I know we're gonna rock it and maybe, just maybe this song will get us all one step closer to being "just a little bit famous."

Appointment for a CD Burlesque Extravaganza!

I go to several different sources for audition notices, one of which is playbill.com. Today I found a call for male or female Cabaret Singer for a "sultry and seedy burlesque-acro-extravaganza" being performed down at the South Street Seaport.

In order to schedule an audition appointment you had to email your headshot, resume as well as an mp3 or video file. After checking out several youtube videos of the production on line, I decided that my recording of Peggy Lee's "Fever" would best fit the bill.

A couple hours later I was contacted with an audition time. Yes! It worked!
1:00pm tomorrow. I'll be there with bells on.

According to the notice I need to provide my own accompaniment on CD for the audition, so I spent part of my evening rifling through karaoke CDs and looking up songs on my old standby, itunes. I was really hoping to find the track for one of my all time favorite standards, "If Love Is A Red Dress" by Maria McKee, but to no avail. I really have to track that track down some how! I know it's out there because I've sung it before in karaoke joints from Nashville to NY!

Desptie my obvious frustration, I settled on burning a CD of five suitable songs which included: "Silent All These Years" (Tori), "It's Oh So Quiet" (Bjork), "La Vie En Rose" (Edith Pilaf), "Fever" (Peggy Lee)and "Angel" (Sarah McLachlan.
That oughta do the trick and provide me with a couple of options should they decide that they would like to hear something else.

I think I've covered all my bases for tomorrow including what I'm going to wear. I've selected a black crepe halter dress with a subtle, yet bold floral print and black heels. I realize that I may be a bit over dressed for an audition for a burlesque show, but my pasties are at the dry cleaners. talk about bad timing!

Ushering in a Tuesday

More free stuff came my way today, this time in the form of a play! I had signed up to do some volunteer ushering for NYMF so I got to see A Puppet Music Thing in which the art of puppetry combines with music.

When I arrived at the rather impressive Chernuchin Theater space which is comfortably seated inside the American Theatre of Actors, I was expecting to be put to work immediately. However since it was to be a smaller house (I can only assume the result of a Tuesday) I was told by the preexisting staff that they wouldn't require my services, so I could either stick around to watch the show, or retire for the evening. Well, I love puppets and I love music, so I was there to stay!

I admit that the show wasn't exactly what I had expected. (I was thinking of something more in the vein of a scripted musical a la Avenue Q.) Nonetheless, I quite enjoyed this lovely 90-minute showcase of puppetry which ranged from the silly and bizarre to the touching and poignant. It was also interesting to see the range of puppets that are used, not all of them hang from strings or are controlled with someone's hand up their rear.

Alissa Hunnicutt performing a candy heartrending piece with a Raggedy Ann puppet/doll.

Marta Mozelle MacRostie and her bouncy chicken puppet Schmutzy performed an adorable dance number, I Shake It With My Chicken

and check out all of these Marionettes!


*all production stills courtesy of the NYMF website

My favorite part of the show had to be the seemingly improvised monologues by a myriad of adorable one of a kind Hensonesque puppets which were brilliantly brought to life by the venerable Tyler Bunch who also happens to be a member of the Jim Henson Company's exceptional troupe of musically improvising puppeteers in Puppet Up! The only thing that I could imagine would be more fun than performing musical improv, is performing musical improv with puppets! I want to do that!!! I may have to start another blog "Puppeteer By The End of This Year!"

From Russia with Film

Tonight duty to my day job called. When I'm not chasing the dream I work at an agency that represents commercial and film cinematographers. It pays the bills and has some lovely perks such as free screenings to independent films.

One such opportunity arose when a DP (Director of Photography) invited my boss to see an indy film that he had shot in Russia. She wasn't able to go to the screening, so I jumped at the chance to attend in her place.

The film, which just came off a grand tour of over 500 screenings throughout Russia, was now being shown stateside as a part of the Russian Film Festival. It turned out to be a Sci-Fi thriller which paid homage to one of my favorite shows, Heroes with elements of X-Men movies sprinkled in.

Even though there may have been a few things that were lost in translation, (I am of partial Russian descent, but don't speak a lick of it) it was cool to see this genre of Sci-Fi dealt with by Russian film makers.

Here's something I found quite amazing, it seems that an English-speaking lad got a hold of the Russian trailer and dubbed over the entire thing themselves. Curious? Check it out!

Wonder-flea Broadway and Showbiz!

Much to my surprise I was able to rise with ease when my alarm went off at 9:15 this morning!

Today was the Broadway Flea Market which is held by Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids every year in Shubert Alley off of 44th St. The folks at NYMF were having us volunteers stuff more red totes with postcards and programs for the festival to be handed out to folks at the flea. This time, however, I found people to be much more skeptical of me and not as open or willing to accept my wares. As opposed to last week's bombardment of free item seekers, I was actually being turned away!
"I don't need that." some were saying. What?!?
Despite the unexpected populice of eco-friendly patrons of the market, I still managed to dispense of all of my bags in about an hour. My mission complete, I made a stop at a Starbucks to recharge myself for some power perusing and shopping through Shubert Alley.

Never before had I seen so many broadway posters and Playbills and show collectibles in one place! There were stuffed Broadway Bears decked out in bedazzled costumes, Autographed T-shirts and Programs, CDs of Broadway Cast Recordings and several stars on hand taking pictures and signing autographs. It was a great day for Broadway!

Piles and piles of Playbills!


Jennifer Barnhart of Avenue Q gave out high fives and autographs to Broadway patrons.


Bears on Broadway !!! ...lucky Bears


I did only minor damage to my wallet today. I was in the market for some more audition material so I spent close to an hour at one particular booth rifling through boxes of paperback Samuel Frenches. At the end of my hour-long frenzy I walked away with 10 books at $1 a pop!
I also bought a copy of the Steve Martin/Daryl Hannah classic Roxanne (I love that movie) which some cute kids were selling in honor of Cyrano de Bergerac. Lastly, and I picked up a copy of the Broadway Cast recording of The Color Purple for a mere two bucks! I love Broadway!

When I had had my fill of flea market shopping, I made my way uptown to the Hilton at 54th & The Avenue of the Americas for a visit to the Film, Stage and Showbiz Expo. Since I didn't know my exact schedule, I opted out of registering for any of the classes that they were offering at an additional charge. I figured that since I was a first-timer to the expo I would just attend the exhibition halls to see who and what was there.

It seems that these days online promotions are at an all time high. There are so many sites dedicated to keeping your headshots, resumes and reels on the web that it's a bit overwhelming. Call me old fashioned, but this is something to which I have yet to adjust.

I talked to a couple headshot photographers and collected information on a few voice and acting coaches and entered myself in a couple of raffles. It turned out that the hall was much smaller than I had anticipated and so I was ready to leave within an hour of my arrival. Nonetheless, I felt like I had a productive day and maybe I'll win one of those raffles which will be even more than I bargained for!

Spotlight Takes Focus!

The Spotlight took focus once again today! This afternoon we had a production meeting at Ars Nova to go over all of the ins and outs of the A.N.T. Fest. Since I had never been to the theater before, I was really looking forward to seeing the space.

When we arrived we were handed a blue tote which contained informational packets about how the festival will be run as well as gold laminated performer badges for each of us which hung from red lanyards. Another nice touch was that even though the meeting was called for 1pm on a Saturday, the folks in charge understood that most of us wouldn't likely have had time to grab a first meal of the day and so they generously provided coffee, juice and bagels for us non-early risers.

The theater itself is a brand black box type of space which will suit "The Spotlight" beautifully. The theater has the option of setting up the space in the style of a cabaret theater which would seat in the rage of 50-60 people, but can also be set up to hold as many as 99 audience members. I think we most definitely hope to go with the latter and pack the house as much as humanly possible.

As Ars Nova is one of the younger theaters on the scene, they seem a bit more daring and avant garde, which I find extremely exciting. I kept making an imaginary blue print and blocking of the stage as I listened to the Artistic and Production Staff give their individual presentations.

The staff was extremely friendly and knowledgeable, making sure that we all felt welcome and in good hands. Following the presentation, we were taken on a quick tour of the rehearsal room and green room of the facility. Very impressive indeed.

Before I left the theater I was approached by vaguely familiar face which was slightly distorted by a prominent handlebar mustache.
"Did you go to U Arts?" he asked.
"Yes," trying to place this unusual stranger..."Adam!"

As it turns out Adam now goes by "Monkey" and he is doing a burlesque-acrobatic type show in the festival with his girlfriend. It sounds pretty cool and I hope to check it out! Only at Ars Nova I tell you!

A Return to TMUM

I had been away from the Made-Up Musical for a couple of weeks, so I was really looking forward to getting back into it again.

This week's suggestion came from Amelie, who was definitely new to the improv scene. She came to New York from South Africa to study some sort of anti-behavioral psychology (sounds like your classic oxymoron to me) at the East Side Clinic on the Upper East Side. She was accompanied by her friends Susan, a doctor (of what I'm not sure) and Kate who "just drinks."

These women were delightful to talk to and though none of them were able to give us a full understanding of what it is that they did, or were trying to do in New York, we took their information and spun a wonderful psychologically musical!

I assumed the role of Amelie who was haunted by a 1940s comedy voice, (thank you Michael Martin.) Was she really mad, or just misunderstood? In the end Amelie embraced the voice in her head and taught everyone to listen to the little voice inside you that makes you who you are.

It was all quite moving - and perhaps a bit funny as well.

It felt really good to sing in front of a crowd again and I had a great time - which is really what this musical improv thing is all about!

I'll be back in The Made-Up Musical next week too - more high jinks are certain to ensue.
Until then!

Band Bass-ics

This evening I met up with the newly appointed band members of "The Spotlight Band for our very first rehearsal. Its been a good while since I've sung with a band and I was really excited! I had rented us a fully loaded music studio at Smash complete with keyboard, amps, mics and drum kit. Originally, the band was only going to consist of our pianist, a guitarist and percussionist, but in the past week or so our musicians requested that we find a bassist to fill out the sound. So that we did!

Several of the guys already knew each other from working on various projects around the improv community, but the drummer was new to them, which was actually a cool thing since these guys are often in need of a drummer. They all seemed to jive and jam pretty well together though, so this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

If anyone felt like the odd man out here, it was me. I'm new to song writing and I felt a bit ill prepared to give the band direction as to what to play. Since I am a musical improviser, I just sort of assumed that I'd do some spot songs with the pianist to get the ideas flowing, and then the other musicians would join in when inspired. This is easier said than done however, so the guys opted to jam and play around with some ideas for tunes while I listened and gathered inspiration for some lyrics.

The guys did a great job of improvising musically. I was sorta envious and wished that I had been able to contribute to their process. We're trying to write an original song, and we all want it to be good - so I'm feeling a little pressure.

By the end of our two hour session, the guys had fleshed out a pretty groovy tune, which may or may not stick - but it's solid a start. I have a big job ahead of me to start pinpointing what I want the song to specifically be about so that I can write some lyrics and fill in the missing elements which hold the keys to helping get us on track to making beautiful music together!

Theater Mania-ed!!!

It's up!

When I got into my office I found a new email from NYMF with a slew of festival updates, one of which was video coverage of last week's Next Broadway Sensation!


Anxious to see if anything from my interview made it in or ended up on the cutting room floor, I clicked on the link...

well, here it is! Check it out!!!I'm pretty sure that's the last we'll be seeing of me in regards to this year's "Next Broadway Sensation" competition, that is unless my infamous Eric Cartman impression shows up somewhere in cyberspace. Keep those fingers crossed folks!

Recarded and Recharged!

Before work today I had to stop by the Actors' Equity Building to pick up a new Equity card and check out some audition posts. Sometimes it's nice to stop by the second floor and look at the hard copies of the audition notices as opposed to perusing them online. Something about it just seems a little less overwhelming. While there I also signed myself up on a chorus call list for "Fiddler on the Roof." There are 250 people ahead of me on that list.

That's right - you're looking at #251!

After work I headed back to my gym for a nice little work out to get the blood pumping and my muscles humming. I think that I'm going to look into enrolling in a dance class or tow this week jsut to switch things up a bit while developing another skill. It seems like these days someone who isn't a triple threat is only a threat to themselves. Time to get moving moving!

Opening NYMF!!!

Who says giving of your time doesn't pay?

As an added bonus for volunteering with NYMF at Sunday's Broadway on Broadway extravaganza, I was invited to attend the New York Musical Theater Festival Opening Night party! The casual/trendy affair began at 9pm and was held at Touch, a swank nightclub in the heart of the Theater District. I arrived ultra-fashionably late with my boyfriend at 10pm and although we had missed the red carpet arrivals, there was still more fun to be had!



My main objective for going to this bash was to see if I could mix and mingle with some others in the theater scene and possibly run into a few familiar faces. Unfortunately, the sea of faces didn't ring any bells but I was still determined to make the most of it. After taking a few turns on the dance floor, my boyfriend suggested that we make our way to the bar area to strike up a few conversations with complete strangers. You can't come out to one of these shindigs without making friends with at least one new person, right?

"You have the same shirt my girlfriend just got," my boyfriend declared to a young man dressed in the NYMF T-shirt like the very one I had received at my volunteer gig the day before. That's all it took. We learned that this guy was fairly new to the city and was now working as a Box Office Manager for the festival. We also chatted with his friend Erin who as it turns out is an Assistant to the General Manager of the Fest. In the end, we exchanged names and are now happily facebook friends. Score another one for facebook! The theater world is very small. You never know where these new friendships may lead!

Satisfied with ourselves for talking to a couple new folks, we got a round of drinks from the futuristic touch sensitive light-up bar (how very apropos) and headed back into the main room for some more dancing and people watching.

We had several pictures of us snapped during the course of the evening, because well, we're just so darn cute I guess - but since I don't yet hold NYMF celebrity status, it's any body's guess as to where those photos will end up. Lucky for us, we had our own camera and snapped a few pictures for posterity.

Check out that bar!



After a lovely night of merriment, I found this sign quite amusing.

If You Can't Join 'Em, Volunteer For 'Em

Even though I wasn't selected to take part in the Next Broadway Sensation competition, I still wanted to be involved with NYMF on some level. They had advertised volunteer opportunities in the newsletter I had received the week before, so I sent an email declaring my interest.

On Friday, just as I was getting ready to leave my office AND nervously awaiting a call from the NYMF Casting Department regarding a callback, my phone rang...

"Hello?" (Are you calling me with a callback???)

Close, but no cigar! It was the Operations Department calling about volunteer opportunities this weekend. Sure, I'll suck it up and volunteer. I'm still gonna keep my fingers crossed that Casting calls me before the day is out, though!

When I didn't get THE phone call I was waiting for, I accepted my fate and my volunteer assignment which was a reasonable consolation prize, even if it did add a little salt to the wound.
I was to report to the NYMF offices at 10am this morning to stuff red NYMF tote bags with season programs, postcards and free copies of Backstage which were to be handed out at the Broadway on Broadway concert in Times Square.

The Broadway on Broadway concert series is one of those free New York events that most New Yorkers rarely take advantage of. I had been meaning to go to it for years, but never made it out there. This year, I've got my Broadway By 30 blog to think about! What better way to ring in a year of Broadway than immersing myself in an afternoon of Broadway Musicals from every big name in town?

I was the first of the volunteers to arrive bright eyed and bushy tailed to the NYMF offices. Shortly thereafter, I was joined by three more volunteers who were Broadway star wannabes like myself, one of whom was also 29! Yay! I'm not the only one!

When we were all finished filling bags, we loaded our goodies into cardboard boxes and carted them from 38th and 8th Avenue up to 45th and Broadway. This was the most challenging bit of the day, but with a little bit of muscle and the use of our "theater voices" the three of us made our way through the crowds up 8th Avenue with our metal cart and cardboard box stacked full of NYMF totes.

We almost didn't make it all the way to the concert site. Once people catch a wiff of free stuff, they want it! They don't care if it's poo or potpourri. We had a limited amount of bags that we were trying to distribute to our target theater-going audience, so when Joe Blow came up to us requesting a bag for every member of his family, I had to turn him away.

Once inside the area that had been cordoned off for those wishing to watch the concert, I began distributing bags to people and talking to them about the festival. I tried to make sure that I was giving my wares away to folks who were either New York locals or tourists who would be in town for the week. It was only a matter of minutes until I was bare of bags, but now I was free to enjoy the show!



To my surprise, the concert which was MCed by 98 Degrees dreamboat Drew Lachey, went on for a full two hours and featured songs from A Tale of Two Cities, Billy Elliot and 13, Avenue Q, Chicago, Disney's The Little Mermaid, Grease, Gypsy, Hairspray, In The Heights, Jersey Boys, The Lion King, Legally Blonde, Mamma Mia!, Mary Poppins, The Phantom of the Opera, Spring Awakening, [title of show], Wicked, Young Frankenstein, and Mr. Lachey's show, Monty Python's Spamalot. Whew! What a day it was!

Even though I think the temperature came close to 8 Degrees, I still had a great time.Here are some pictures I snagged with my camera phone...

Broadway Bombshell Bebe Neuwirth sings a little ditty
about the Great White Way

Tomcat Tom Wopat tears it up with "All I Care About" from Chicago

A view of the crowd behind me

The Big Broadway Finish with confetti and all!

So there you have it folks. Here's hoping that by this time next year, I'll be singing with the best of them in Broadway on Broadway!!!

TGI TDF

As a theater professional it's important to see theater. I'm really trying to beef up the amount of live theater I take in without bleeding myself dry, so today I decided to become a member of the Theater Development Fund. As a member of Actors' Equity I am eligible to take advantage of TDF's membership program which for a yearly fee of $27.50 gives me access to half price theater tickets to Broadway, Off-Broadway and other miscellaneous shows around town! The advantage of a membership is that you can get your tickets ahead of time and don't have to stand in line.

The Theater Development Fund is a supercalafragelisticexpialadocious organization that distributes Broadway and Off-Broadway theater tickets at discount prices. They're trying to make theater affordable for everyone: a valiant and noble cause.

I have a lot of fond Broadway memories thanks to TDF. Thanks to discount tickets, my parents fostered my love of the theater year after year by bringing me up to the city on holiday weekends to see a slew of shows, sometimes three in one weekend! Upon our arrival, one of our first stops was always the TKTS booth in Times Square. It was sorta exciting to get in line and roll the dice on what show we would score tickets to.

One time we got 6th row center seats to The Rainmaker with Woody Harrelson, Jayne Atkinson and Jerry Hardin (aka Deep Throat from the X Files.) After the show Woody emerged from the stage door stoned out of his gourd and shook our hands. "Nice to meet you," he said pupils dilated. Oh my gosh! Woody Harrelson is high oh hashish! and he just shook my hand!!!

Another time we got tickets to Urinetown starring star of NBC's "Ed" Tom Cavanagh who's dreamy blue eyes reached my gaze all the way back to 18th row, house right.
Man, his eyes are blue!

...and when I was a freshman in high school, I got my first taste of a slinky blond Bebe Neuwirth in a revival of Damn Yankees! "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets!"

Well, this little Lola wants some half-price tickets to Broadway shows and she's gonna get 'em! Hooray!!!

Audi-shunned!!!

I woke up bright and early today at 7:30 in the a.m. and by 8:00 I was ready to roll. I emerged from the subway with the rest of the rush hour crowd and headed to the Roy Arias Theater Center. Not knowing what to expect I found my heart pounding in anticipation of seeing 100 people already congregated out in front. As I approached, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there wasn't much of a crowd there at all. As a matter of fact, I was #41 on the unofficial sign-in sheet that was being passed around by all of the early risers.

It was around 8:30 when one of the early birds reported back to the rest of us that those in chrge would begin the process of taking us upstairs at approximately 9:30. So be it. With an hour to kill I cracked open my hard cover copy of "Good Harbor" and copped a squat on the sidewalk. At times like these I prefer to keep to myself unless someone goes out of their way to engage me in conversation. It's nothing personal, but I just find it too early in the morning to strike up polite chit chat with strangers.

I was minding my own business when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a small film crew approaching my portion of the line. These cats were with TheaterMania.com and they were going through the line interviewing people. I'm not usually big into being interviewed in this type of situation where the purpose of the interview is gratuitous exploitation, but it was early yet and I wasn't completely thinking straight so when approached I suddenly heard myself say, "Alright, I'll be interviewed."

The correspondent who's name I later found out is Evan was kind enough to keep his interviews brief. He asked me my name, which I later regretted giving, and why I thought I should be "Broadway's Next Big Sensation."
"It's just my time," I said, trying not to sound too full of myself.
One fun thing was that I actually managed to fit in a plug about my blog, Broadway By 30!
"And you're welcome for the free plug," said Evan as he made a mental note to edit that entire section of the interview out in post.
"And what are you singing today? Would you like to sing a bit of it?"

Darn! I hate when they do that. "No, not really," I thought.

"I'll sing it with you!" Evan encouraged.
With that I sang a few bars while Evan pretended to sing along. It was great, and by great I mean kinda pathetic. I admit that hamming it up on the spot is something I have to work on. I just hate doing it. I'm not a wind-up monkey dammit!

And with that my five nanoseconds of fame were over. Evan and his crew of two continued down the line in search of hammier hams than I to ham it up in front of the cam. "I wish that hadn't been quite so painful," I thought. "Never mind that now! We've got an audition to do!"
...in 2 hours.

I went back to reading my book and playing with my phone until the powers that were began filing us inside in groups of ten. We made our way through a narrow hallway to the holding room where a lovely monitor with a charming British accent was signing us in. This time I was #31. Wow! That's much sooner than I thought! My throat tightened up a little at the thought. "Am I able to sign up for a later time?" I asked the monitor?
"Best to get in there earlier in the day when they're still fresh," he advised.
"You're right." I signed my name next to #31.
"Hope this is my lucky number!" I thought to myself.

It was already 10:15 and at the rate they were going I would be seen at around 11:30. Yikes!
I made a b-line for the bathroom and fixed my hair and makeup. Primping before an audition always has a calming effect. I also started doing lip trills and the Fran Drescher technique that had been prescribed to me by my teacher the day before.
"Neee-ah, neee-ah, neeee-ah..."
"brrrrrrrrrr!!!!"

Once I got started, it wasn't long before others joined in creating a cacophony of vocalizations. An alien dropped down from another planet might have mistaken all of us for patients in a mental ward. No, no - we're just getting ready to sing like the blazes!

I was feeling good and ready when they called numbers 21-36 to line up in another narrow passageway outside of the audition studio. This is how veal must feel. One by one we ushered ourselves into the audition room like cattle to the slaughter. (They don't call it a "Cattle Call" for nuthin'.) The cold hard truth is that some of us will be made into USDA Grade A filet, while others will be cut into ground chuck. I just hope I make the first cut!

Waiting on deck is probably one of my least favorite parts of auditioning. The anticipation, the clammy hands. Also, you can usually hear the people ahead of you in the room, and it's hard not to size yourself up against them while you're patiently awaiting your time to shine. What you need sometimes is a distraction. Lucky for us, Evan and his crew showed up again!
Ay yay yay! This time he was interviewing us poor bastards as we were getting ready to go into the audition room and as we came out. I really just wanted to be left alone so that I could focus in and audition, but I decided to lighten up and embrace the absurdity of it all.

It seemed like they were holding onto some people and having them do things that were listed in their special skills section like bird calls and singing with a southern twang. I was ready for anything!

Finally my time had arrived - I entered the room which was more like a miniature black box theater with amphitheater-style seating and a small raised thrust stage. The accompanist sat stage right behind a baby grand. I stepped confidently onto the stage and handed my sheet music to the accompanist. "Starting here, and going to the end," I told her.

"Be calm," I told myself. "You've got this!"

"What will you be singing for us today?" asked the yound gentleman down in front.
"Journey to the Past, from Anastasia," I replied. And off I went.

"One step at a time, one hope then another, who knows where this road may go..."
The song flowed out of me like rain. The last note filled the room and it was over. I was feeling good. That song felt good.

"Where are you from?" the auditor inquired with a smile.
"Philadelphia, originally, but now I live in New York."
"How did you hear about us?"
"I'm on the NYMF mailing list"
"Good answer!"
"Have you ever taken part in any other singing competitions?"
"Actually, no." I responded - (is that a good thing or a bad thing I wondered)
"Well, welcome!"
"Thank you."

And that was all she wrote. I retrieved my music and left the room. What had just happened in there? I didn't get to do my finny Cartman voice or my Shakira impression! That would have loved that!

Not a second after I emerged from the room there was Evan again, waiting to interview me post slaughter.
"So, Robin you were just ejected from the room."
(That's putting it mildly)
"Yeah," I said hazily.
"So, how'd it go?"
"I'm not sure, they didn't ask me to do any special skills for them."
"What's one of your special skills?"
"Well, I do a pretty good Eric Cartman impression."
"Can we hear a bit of it?"

I did my impression without any hesitation this time. It looks like my hamming-it-up skills are improving already.

We were told that they would be making phone calls to those who made the callbacks after 8pm tonight. It's after 11pm now and no phone call.

Ah well, I gave it my best shot. And sometimes, that's the best that anyone can do! It looks like my quest for Broadway isn't going to be realized this soon.

One step at a time, one hope then another,
who knows where this road may go?

Looks like this road to Broadway is just at the beginning.

One Final Note!

Okay! My teacher contacted me this morning and he was able to squeeze me into his schedule for a 30-minute intensive! I couldn't wait to get in there and watch him work his magic. He held the key to my success at tomorrow's Broadway Idol Open Call shindig!

The audition breakdown called for 16 bars of "something that would show off your vocal chops" - so, in short, something that would amaze and astound them. You got it misters! Hold onto your hats!

The first song that came to mind was another piece that I've had in my book for good five years - but I haven't used it in quite some time. It's called "Journey to the Past" from the 1997 animated motion picture Anastasia which was voiced by America's sweethearts John Cusack and Meg Ryan and everybody's favorite barroom psychiatrist, Kelsey Grammar - a definite classic.

My teacher agreed with me on this selection right away, and so we immediately set to work fine tuning the piece that was destined to wow the judges. This horse is a winner! He took me through some warm-ups that are good for me to pre-audition to help wake up the part of my register that tends to be a little sleepier. Think nasal Fran Drescher or Edith Bunker from "All in the Family" going "nee-uh, nee-uh, nee-uh, neee-uhhh." It's a sound that would make dogs howl at the moon, but it does the trick so I'm sticking with it!

"Journey to the Past" is sort of an up tempo piece, so 16 bars goes by in a flash, so to give it a little more meat we beefed it up to about 27. We also did a clever little cut and paste to keep the sheet music to two pages, so it would also appear short in length to the accompanist. The cut we used was from the very end of the son where all of the impressive, fancy big finish stuff happens. I like the last note of the song best. It "sits well on me" as my teacher says, and he recommended that I take this song out of retirement and out it back to work for me in my audition book. "Time to start re-loving this song," he said.

We worked the song from many different angles both technical and emotional. How are you going to perform this song? What is the story behind it that you are going to get through to the auditors watching you? These are all important questions to answer before the big day.

"You know what is really interesting about your choice of this song?" he asked. "The words seem to really fit what you're going through right now in your career and your endeavor to make it to Broadway."

"Oh yeah," I realized.

"It's funny how sometimes the material that we select for ourselves magically reflects what's going on in our lives, without us even knowingly doing it."

"Now I want you to sing the song for me again, but this time using these circumstances as your subtext in the song and see what happens."

I started again...

"One step at a time, one hope then another,
who knows where this road may go?
Back to who I was, on to find my future,
Things my heart still needs to know
Yes, let this be a sign,
Let this road be mine,
Let it lead me to my past.
And bring me home
At LAST!!!"

Holy crap he's right! It was all right there in the music! Suddenly, it was as if this song had been written about me on my journey to make it to Broadway! It all became so clear what I was really singing about. I had my answer!
I'm ready.

La La La Lessons!

Mi mi mi.... That was me warming up my voice. I had my first voice lesson today with my new fantastic teacher! He seems to be everything I was hoping for - someone who is well-versed in the mechanics of how singers produce sound, as well as how they should perform their material. Speaking of material, it's like a goldmine in there! His studio is filled with shelves of sheet music from every musical ever written! (Me=jealous!) Once he got a good sense of me and my voice, he recommended several songs for me to add to my repertoire. He knows exactly what types of songs singers need in their audition books, and he photocopied five or six of them and handed them over. (Me=excited!) Since we were recording the lesson onto a CD he played all of the pieces through for me so that I can go off and learn them on my own.

These lessons are a huge investment in myself. For a private lesson with a good, certified teacher in the city, the going rate is $100 per hour. No wonder so many of us artists are starving! That's at least a month's worth of groceries for me! But I'll sing for my supper! At this point, I see that I have little choice. If I want to book jobs, I have to make sure that I'm armed and ready with the right equipment. The way I figure it, there are just as many people out there who would drop $100 on a night of drinking or drugs. Well, this guy's officially my new dealer!

Time is money so we spent the hour-long session going through lots of warm-ups and vocal exercises, explaining the more technical side of vocal production with the use of some handy visual aides. I found it really interesting, and was impressed by his wealth of knowledge on the anatomy of the human larynx. I was learning a lot.

He used the last 20 minutes of my lesson to hear me sing 20 or so bars of one of my go-to audition pieces, "Home" from Broadway's Beauty and the Beast. I think that I've had that song in my collection for a good 14 years now, without exaggeration. What? I love that song!
Nonetheless, I'm really looking forward to working on this new material which consists of a little bit of pop, classic musical theater, comic musical theater, and a couple tunes from the 60s. He liked my rendition of "Home" so even though the piece is pretty ancient, it may continue to reside in my book for a little while longer.

When I got back into my office this afternoon, I found an email from NYMF (New York Musical Theater Festival) awaiting me in my in box. What's this?! An Open Call for the Next Broadway Sensation??? The Open Call is on FRIDAY??? Oh, what to do? What to do???
The Next Broadway Sensation, formerly known as "Broadway Idol" is just what it sounds like: an Americal Idol-type competition, for Broadway-star wannabes, instead of national TV-bes. They hold auditions to find contestants for the show which is hosted by NYMF and currently in its third year. This is my chance! It's right up my Great White (Alley) Way! I have got to go to that audition - but, not before I am well-prepared!

Okay, so I panicked a little. I immediately sent out an email - trying not to sound too desperate to my new Messiah/Voice Teacher about setting up a last minute voice lesson tomorrow evening so that he can help me prepare a little somethin' somethin' spectacular. I'm still waiting with bated breath to hear back "yay" or "nay." Until then, I'm going to try to chill out a little with a few new vocal warm-ups.

La la la la la laaaaaaa.......

Working Out Plundered Spirits

My day started off well enough, until I checked my email. I had been notified about upcoming auditions for a certain organization with whom several friends of mine are involved and so I sent out an email requesting an audition slot. Unfortunately, since I had already auditioned for them last year, they didn't want to see me again. In the words of Mary Kate & Ashley Olson, "How rude!" That was my frame of mind upon reading their cool response to my very cleverly-worded email. I felt like a child stomping their feet and fists waving about pre-tantrum. Ugh! Well that friggin' sucks! Since I know several of the people in this group, although they are not necessarily the ones in charge of auditions, I felt a bit slighted and extremely disappointed. Was this an excuse to not have me audition because they didn't like me the first time around or what? Maybe I've grown! Maybe I'm better dammit!

So you see the emotions and thoughts that were cycling through my head all day. Once I get going I can start to drive myself crazy. My poor ego took a bit of a beating today. whaaaaaa!
In my experience one of the best ways to work through this stuff is to work out. After all, I had just renewed my gym membership, remember?

I headed to my gym right after work and hopped on the Precor and Elliptical for 30 minutes a piece and let my mind wander. It felt good. I had forgotten my iPod so I watched a good chunk of Larry King Live as he discussed Sarah Palin with Joy Behar of all people. My brain also got quite the workout trying to decipher the bizarre not-anywhere-nearly-close-to-accurately transposed closed captioning on the plasma screen TV. "Pay-len seven year-old daughter baby. Now a whore to nowhere?" Huh? When I tired of that, I rested my eyes on the TVs broadcasting that obstacle course reality show "Wipeout" What an instant classic! That show may or may not be the best thing to watch while your jogging on an elliptical. I caught myself trying to will the people on TV to move through the courses of enormous red rubber balls by running faster. Whenever I did this, I had to reduce my speed to prevent myself from biting it. Super. Damn you Reality TV! I'm going downstairs to pump some iron!

In any case, all that working out did the job in calming me down and making me forget my frustration over the audition. I think I may inquire within if possible, just to clear my mind of it for good. After all, I know that there are plenty more auditions on the horizon to fill the temporary void. Onward and upward as my Mom Mom always used to say!

Scoring A Voice Lesson

I hadn't gotten a response to the email I had sent regarding voice lessons, so I gave the man a call. This time, success! I heard back from the voice instructor within the hour via text message - (thank you text plan!) "I have this Weds free at 1pm open-- any chance you're free then?"

YES! I'll take it!

I'm really looking forward to buckling down and getting started as soon as possible. Wednesday at 1:00 can't come soon enough! Starting up regular vocal training will be one of the most proactive things I've done for myself in a while. I'll be able to work on audition pieces and go into Equity calls armed and ready with better material and more confidence! Just thinking about it is making me jump out of my skin!

I've assembled my book of songs which contains everything from Jazz standards i.e. What A Difference A Day Made to musical theater classics Somewhere That's Green (you know how I feel about that one) and I Don't Know How to Love Him. Like I said, I feel like my book can use a bit of an update, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what kinds of suggestions this guy has for me. I'd also like to work on some classical stuff again to help me get my legit voice back up to par since its been a little neglected.

Right now I'm checking out actorsequity.org and marking down some auditions happening at the end of the week, so if Wednesday's lesson goes especially well, I'll likely dive right on in! It's time to get back out there and you can bet I'll be ready!

Suddenly Seeing More To Sing More

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

I've been putting together some more audition material for myself these past few days so that I have something to bring into a voice instructor. I have been going through my songbooks and it has occurred to me that a makeover of my repertoire might be in order as well. Times, they are a'changin' so I need some new stuff! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that not all of my music belongs in the dumpster. It's gonna take a little more effort to pry a few of my favorite musical theater standards and standbys from my hands.

One of my favorite musicals of all time is Little Shop of Horrors (can you blame me? It's fantastic!) Suddenly Seymour and Somewhere That's Green are probably in my Top 10 list of favorite musical theater songs of all time. Who doesn't melt at the sound of those sweet little chord progressions? I like to sing what I love so they're here to stay in my anthology of material! Please, let me keep 'em! Please! Just give me some more time with them and I know I can bring them back to life! Why do I love these songs so much anyway? Maybe I need to go back to square one and take a look at the musical again.

It had been years and years since I'd watched "Little Shop." I'll never forget seeing it for the first time in the movie theater when I was about 7 years old. My grandparents took me knowing that it was something their granddaughter just had to see. I remember being frightened at the start of the film, so many scary, rough and tumble characters flooded the screen, but Audrey seemed pretty and nice, and Seymour was a non-threatening male character with which I could empathize. Long story short, I loved that damn movie! So going back to what I had learned in the seminar the other day about finding your story and letting that carry your voice, etc., I decided that it might not be a bad idea to watch it again and refresh my memory, 22 years later. (Better late than never, eh?)

I made my boyfriend drag out his projector and we projected "Little Shop" on the wall for a good old fashioned movie night. He had never seen the picture, so it made it even more fun for me because I love introducing people to new things. As soon as the Roger Corman-like introduction began to roll, I was seven years-old all over again. Funny how this musical never fails to tug at my heartstrings and conjure up the same emotions I felt for it as a child. However, now that I am fully grown, (in size, that is - certainly not in maturity) whenever I watch a musical whether it be on stage or screen, I inevitably feel an emotion that the seven year-old me was not yet acquainted...longing. I've become all too familiar with this feeling in recent years, and I am determined to do whatever is in my power to slake it!

Until such time - please cry your hearts out. That's what I do whenever I hear this song...

GEdit Together

EDITING

I enjoy a little video editing every now and again, and should I ever assemble a reel or submit to a festival, I figured that it would be handy to have my "Caba-raoke" performance from Variety Underground on tape.

For those who weren't able to see it live, here it is without further ado...

Making the Mono-Scene

PERFORMANCE

Okay, so I suppose I may be stretching it a tad, but I performed a set of long-form improv at 12am, FRIDAY morning at the Magnet Theater in the "Magnet Mixer." That qualifies, right?

Anyway, the Magnet Mixer is a chance for people in the improv community to mix it up by doing scenes and different improv forms with students and even audience members. (My boyfriend managed to persuade a couple of newcomers to give it a whirl and they had a swell time!)

I did the form known as a "Mono-scene" in which the improvisers get a suggestion of a non-geographical location that can fit on the stage and create a scene in which all players may enter and exit at any time, but the location remains the same.

Our suggestion was "Candy Shop" My mind immediately went to Dylan's Candy Bar on 60th and 3rd. As much as I hate to admit it, I love that place. Every time I go in there I feel like a kid...in a candy...store. Well I do. But that's not how I played the scene - I opted to play an Upper East Side mother throwing her son Toby a $50,000.00 birthday party. Hey, in Manhattan don't think it doesn't happen. I felt good about how the scene went overall. Even though I've decided to dial down on the amount of improv that I do, I still don't want to get improv flabby. It's a good weekly workout for me. It's a chance to perform (which is never a bad thing) and it keeps me sharp. Lately I've been working on things like specifics and keeping the scenes grounded in reality along with strong relationships. No court or acting professor in the land would be able to argue with that!

I'll admit that sometimes I get really nervous about getting up there in front of my peers, but I force myself to do it because I think it's good to make myself do things that sometimes scare me or make me a little weak in the knees. It makes me a better improviser and a better performer, but it also makes me feel like a stronger person for facing my fears. The kicker is that no matter what happens up there, I inevitably always manage to have a great time. The Mixer is good clean fun! Everyone should try it! It'll make you feel like a kid in a candy store!

Workin' and Shoppin' It!

Busy day today - My day consisted of three parts:

1. TRAINING - first order of business of the day was attending a free seminar on Musical Theater Audition Technique at The Actors Connection. I love free stuff -and this seminar was a good introduction to how things work at The AC since I had never attended anything offered by the before. The seminar was basically an introduction to a 4-week class being offered in audition technique, but I still managed to get a good amount of worthwhile information from just free class. The instructor spoke about examining the text of your songs and letting the story carry your voice. I liked this perspective. It's nothing that I hadn't heard before, but hearing it again has inspired me to find a voice teacher who will help me prepare audition pieces using this technique. Now I know specifically what to ask for from my instructor and I feel like this will save me time in discovering the process I need to go through in order to have more successful auditions. Acting through my songs is something that I have striven to do all along, however I haven't had someone watch and coach me in a while, so my hope is they'll set me straight & help me acquire the tools I need to book the job.

2. WORK - Day job calls. I headed into the job that pays my rent immediately following the seminar & put in some solid hours before moving onto my next gig.

3. PERFORMANCE
I left work and grabbed a cab to the Parkside Lounge, arriving just in the nick of time to perform my "Caba-raoke" set for Variety Underground. It was a good size crowd tonight & they seemed a friendly bunch. I was the last act of the night, so it was important to me that I didn't leave anyone with a bad taste in their mouth. With lyric sheets and karaoke CD in hand - I took the stage and grabbed the mic.

"Hi everyone," I said. "I'm kinda new to song writing, so I have a new song that I just wanted to try out in front of a group of people. It's a little on the longer side, but I have a lot of musical influences that I wanted to incorporate into my song, like Cher..."
The audience let out a laugh. (whew - they're with me.) I knew that everything would be fine from here on out.

Despite a couple of lyrical missteps and one minor microphone mishap, the act was surprisingly well received. I suddenly came to the realization that it has been quite a while since I've performed a solo act - and it felt really good. I think there is something worth exploring here and I think that with a little fine tuning and polishing, it could be something worth shopping around.

Of course I can't take full credit for having the idea to put this thing together. That honor goes to my adorable boyfriend. Without his constant encouragement and persistence I might never have done this at all. He came up with the name "Caba-raoke" too.

When I left the stage tonight I was on a comic high and took a moment before I could feel the ground beneath my feet again. Several people came up to me after the show telling me how much they enjoyed the act. One guy even asked if I had a website.
"A website? Not quite yet."
"So I should just keep an eye out for you then?"
"Check out my blog," I said with a smile.
...or if not, maybe he'll catch me on Broadway.

iTuning Up for Tomorrow's Get Down

PERFORMANCE PREPARATION

Tomorrow is my big solo debut at Variety Underground with "Caba-raoke" - my vocal impression act using karaoke tracks and I spent today assembling my act. I had decided on a selection of five vocal impressions: The Cranberries, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Cher and my pièce de résistance, Shakira. Yep, this is gonna be good! I hopped onto the old iTunes, which has lately been one of the best resources for karaoke tracks that I can find. Perhaps the growing popularity of American Idol and Rockband has created more of a demand for karaoke. iTunes is a real bargain too - only $.99 a pop for some pop as opposed to the 25 bucks I used to have to fork over for a whole CD of songs that I didn't want, just for the use of the one I had a need for. I love you iTunes! (...and you're welcome for the endorsement)

A mere $4.95 later I had purchased the tracks to Zombie, Oops...I Did It Again, Don't Speak, Believe and Underneath Your Clothes (all stellar choices in my book,) and set to work building my piece for Caba-raoke (hopefully not to be proven a piece of Crapa-raoke) using GarageBand. I'm fairly new to GB, but despite not being very "well-versed" in the ins and outs of the program, I was able to import all five songs and cut them together effortlessly into an effervescent pop medley of highly combustible proportions! Watch out everybody, this thing is gonna blow! (but in a good way)

As for the presentation of my "Caba-raoke" I've decided not to go the way of the drag queen. Instead I think I'll just go on as myself (a more daunting task in actuality) and present my piece under the guise of an original song that I've recently written, incorporating elements of some of my favorite influences: Cher, Shakira, etc. Then I'll pull the 'ol switcheroo on 'em! Foiled again folks!

I really have no idea what to expect from the crowd tomorrow, but the VU crowd is always a supportive group making it a safe place to take risks and experiment with stuff. Even if they hate me, I'm sure they'll hide it well enough. But really, how could they hate me? I'm doing an impression of Cher for cripessake! Everybody loves a good Cher impression ...

...Do you believe in life after love? (after love, after love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say,
I really don't think you're strong enough, Now!
...Do you believe in life after love? (after love, after love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say,
I really don't think you're strong enough, Now!

Banding Together!

With the sum-sum-summertime holiday at a close, it's time to dive right back into the cool waters of the industry. No more time for chillaxing by the pool - it's back to the business of the biz!

So here we go!

I realize of late I can't stop talking about The Spotlight but it just can't be helped because good things are happening with it! We've got the A.N.T. Fest show to plan for and this is going to take some serious preparation if we want it to catch that someone specials' special attention. The A.N.T. Fest at Ars Nova is our time to shine -(for at least one night anyway.) It's our chance to do the show the way we've always intended - a little bigger and a little badder (in a good way.) There will be more lights, more cameras & more action this time around. Since the stage is completely ours for that one night - we're pullin' out all the stops!

My role in all of this glorious mania remains that of "Musical Guest." For the past few shows, I've been improvising commercial break jingles as well as "spot songs" based on audience suggestions. This time however, I think we're going to shake things up a bit. Since we're playing in a non-improv venue, the show doesn't have to be entirely improvised, so I thought it would be extra supercool to write an original song. I've been trying my hand at song-writing lately and this gives my endeavor a little more urgency and purpose.

I won't be in this alone though. I had always imagined having a few more band members involved with The Spotlight. We've only ever done the show with a pianist or a guitarist as our "bandleader" - but now we're taking things up a notch by adding a guitarist and a percussionist to "The Spotlight Band." That's right, we're dialing it up to eleven!

I spent part of my day emailing a few friends who are also members of the improv community, and happen to be excellent musicians, and they happily accepted my invitations instantly. Those are good friends. Sure, it's nice to be asked to do a show, but it's equally nice to have people eager to hop aboard your project, expecting nothing in return but the opportunity to perform. Further proof that we are making art happen.

The next step will be coordinating our schedules and securing proper rehearsal studios that will provide us with the type of equipment we need. I personally can't wait to get started! November 7th seems a while away, but I know that it'll be here before we can say "The Spotlight with Sean Taylor!"