3. Good Day(s)

So, I had a really good audition day on Tuesday. I have to preface this, though. This does not mean that I got a job or a callback. It means that I had fun and I felt really good about the work I put forth. For most people interviews and job hunting only come around a handful of times in their lives. And when you go to an interview the point is to get the job. For me it is a weekly if not daily occurrence to audition for a job, but I've had to change my focus from getting the job to having an opportunity to perform each day. This is a necessity for me because otherwise it would be easy to fall into the trap of seeing failure all around me. I don't say this to dissuade you from offering positive comments, but to make it clear that the majority of auditions I go to I won't be called back and at even fewer will I get the job. It's my life and I grown to accept it and find the positive things in the audition process. With that said, I promise that you all will be the first to know when I get a job.
Here was my day on Tuesday: I awoke early, ate breakfast,got dressed and rushed out the door to audition for the Prather's (The audition was in Chelsea). I did Man of La Mancha, Grease, and Seven Brides for Seven Brother's with them. I have not had the opportunity to work for them since I took my equity card and I probably won't for a long time. They have Equity Guest Artist contracts, but they just got more expensive to use. It's a shame, I say, because I would have made a damn fine Nancy in Oliver! But, I sang "As Long As He Needs Me" for them anyway and it went well. It's always good to stay on the radar and I really do like them. My friend Eddie "Schnecks" was the monitor and I haven't seen him in over a year because he's been away on tour. I had to run to go to another audition at the Equity Building, but I promised to come back so that we could catch up. (Eddie has always been such a great friend to me and we've talked about so much with one another and he always has such good advice).
So, I ran up to Equity to audition for White Christmas at Virginia Music Theatre. There, I ran into another old friend that I worked with in Galveston, Texas who told me that I should also audition for this children's theatre in Brooklyn who was also there. He said it was a fun audition. Anyway, I got an appointment for White Christmas, but the pianist hadn't shown up and the monitor and the theatre were in a feverish hustle to get someone in there to play. So an hour into the call a new pianist shows up and she turned out to be fabulous. I sang Maybe This Time and it also went well. When I finished they complemented my voice. So, I thought what the hell, I'll audition for this children's theatre, especially if it's a fun audition. They weren't busy at all, so I got right into the next time slot. They were asking for a contemporary music theatre song and a comedic monologue. I went in and sang I know the Truth from Aida. I'm not particularly fond of singing poppy songs, but I am learning to handle them better and I was good if I do say so myself. Then I did my monologue and the entire panel laughed through the whole thing. When I finished they said, "Okay, now we want you to start the monologue over, but we want you to do it with a Russian Jewish accent." Needless to say that is not one of the accents listed on my resume, but I said, "I'll try it, but bear with me if it turns into a stereotype." I got ready and began and out of my mouth came the fully developed Russian Jewish accent of a.....

man. Not sure why it came out in the lowest part of my register, but it sure was funny. The best part was that as I continued through the monologue the accent continued to evolve until there I was acting out my monologue as a Brooklyn Jew. I even thought about saying "Oi Vey!" They loved it and as we were all laughing one of the guys behind the table said, "That was amazing! You just took us on a journey of the Jewish migration from Russia to Brooklyn. Now I can see exactly where the Brooklyn accent comes from. That was cool." Yep, I thought so too!
So, I headed back down to Chelsea and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with my old friend, Eddie. After the Prather's were done we all walked up to their hotel back in midtown. It gave me a fabulous opportunity to catch up with my director from La Mancha and his partner who is the music director. Then I headed to the gym and then home to dinner and sleep.

Yesterday I had a breakthrough in class. I sang a song (Life of the Party from Lippa's Wild Party) that scared me because it has an entire part of improv and it belts to a D and E. It's f-ing hard. But, the breakthrough was that I sang it with utter abandon. I had sung through the song with Eddie that morning and he told me to just let go and trust myself. He knew I knew what the song was about and if I truly committed to the song and the scenario I created that anything that came out of my mouth would be right. I have a hard time not judging my sound as it comes out. But, I did it! And even better when I listened to the recording it was something even I can be proud of. Rissa, you have to tell me how I could post the track! Needless to say, I wanted to sing and dance all the way home. As I talked to OB on the way home, I thought that my muscles in my face might cramp from smiling so much. It was a good day!!