This morning I attended another chorus call at Telsey & Co. for The Addams Family. That show is gonna be a blast!
I was a little more prepared for what to expect at today's chorus call. I arrived to the call at 9:30 this morning, as is customary, for the reading of the list - on which, I was #410. I suspected that it would take quite a while to get to my name - so I kicked back for a bit as the Equity Monitor expertly read through each page. I kept listening for a name that I recognized and searching the room for a familiar face. Around number 200, I recognized a name and a face of this little blonde girl; Tara that went attended my college. I believe she was two or three years behind me - and truthfully, I didn't know her very well when we were in college - but I thought it might be nice to chat with her once all of the cards were distributed.
Surprisingly, there weren't as many girls present for the call as I had expected. I mean, I was #410 - you'd expect a few hundred people to turn up to get their chorus cards. Not so at all! After all was said and done - I was only #81!
Chorus calls are very strict on audition policy. You have to arrive early enough in the day to receive a card & once they have all been distributed, they close the call - so no one else can just show up and sign up for a slot.
"Nice jacket," I remarket to the blonde girl who I recognized, unsure of whether or not she would recognize me in return.
"Hi!" she smiled, pleasantly.
"It's good to see you!"
I took this to mean that she knew whom I was.
We chatted for a while about school and our fellow classmates who are also out and about in the entertainment world. Some of them are making it!
One girl who had understudied a revival of 42nd Street is now covering the rolls of The Lady of the Lake in "Spamalot!" Another one is in the cast of "Wicked" and a few others are touring or doing off Broadway shows. So! It is possible to make it happen!
That's what Tara and I were hoping for today.
I had about an hour to kill before my number was called, so I ventured out for some tea at a local Starbucks. I also stopped into the restroom in the Westin Hotel to do a little more vocalization and warming up. I've found that this bathroom is seldom frequented, so I was able to another 10 or 15 minutes of vocalization before someone came in to use the bathroom for a more traditional purpose.
I returned to the studio feeling a little more refreshed and ready to rock and roll and was first in line for my group of 81-100 - which is a good thing in a way. Not much time to get nervous and have your throat tighten up on you. I entered the room cheerily and handed my music to the accompanist, while demonstrating the rock beat of "Smash the Mirror" as my voice teacher had advised. It's sort of a way to "take ownership" of your audition piece. I've started to think of my auditions as my two or three minute one-person show. It's my time to shine, so when I hand over my sheet music, I want to make sure that the accompanist and I are on the same page...literally.
I sang the shinola out of my 16 bars, and then some - because the accompanist continued to play through the end of the song. I think he may have misunderstood my instruction to play only to where it said "End" on the sheet music, but maybe he was digging my performance so much that he just wanted to here more! Ah well, I rolled with it. Improvisation, baby!
Overall I felt pretty good about the audition & can only keep my fingers crossed from here. The hoping and waiting for a break is the scariest thing of all.
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