Countdown to Plane Crazy!
Dear Diary,
Well, I finally made the move from hotel to a real apartment in New York City! A great little place in the Upper West Side! How lucky can you get!
Of course, I do miss the maid service and 24-hour room service...but I don't miss fighting my way through the throngs of teen pageant contestants camped out in the lobby, or the drunken revelers walking past my door at 2 o'clock in the morning!
Of course, I do miss my husband and daughters. Myrna is busy in rehearsals for Annie Get Your Gun, Trinity is busy at art classes and socializing like a butterfly, and my husband is just plain busy -- working, working, working, looking after the kids...oh, and working!
We've spent the last two days in auditions at Ripley Grier Studios at 36th and 8th, so I've been getting my exercise in by walking to and from the studio!
Apparently this is THE audition space nowadays. They are on the 16th floor and very bright, air conditioned and well appointed. Not at all like the crumbling down dim tunnels I had imagined. In fact, auditions for Kathy Lee's latest musical were taking place next to us, so if it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me! I must say it was pretty cool to see the Plane Crazy notice on the door, with my name at the top of the list! Too cool.
And I must also say it was super cool to hear live actors reading my scenes!
I've learned that auditioning is a skill unto itself. I've seen a ton of super-talented people over the last couple of days and talent itself isn't enough. Maybe it should be, but you can't help but be impressed by actors who are on time, well-dressed (with some thought as to the part for which they are reading), have additional music to sing (without frantically flipping back and forth and back and forth and back and forth in their huge books for the one song that shows off their voice), who have memorized their sides, and who walk in with confidence and don't apologize for being flustered because this is their tenth audition today! (way to make me feel important!).
I heard all sorts of songs, some I had never heard before, some old chestnuts, and I even heard Tom Lehrer's "The Masochism Tango"!
But I wish I could tell each and every one of them that the moment they walk in, I am totally on their side. I want them so desperately to be right for the part -- it's their part to lose. I, on the other side of the table, am totally freaking out that we won't be able to find the right person! I want them to succeed!
Here's to the actors!
Technorati tags: Broadway Music Movie Musicals Musicals Blog Blogs Theater Theatre Entertainment
The one thing I never did and don't advise is "memorizing" sides to the point where you don't carry them up there with you.
2 reasons:
1. Because even someone with the most able memory (which I do have) can have a mental glitch under the pressure of an audition...and if you're not holding it...well, it's a downward spiral.
2. But more importantly you don't want to be doing a performance; you want to do an audition. You don't want the auditors to think that what you're doing is set in stone, the final product. It's but a starting point. I don't have stats on it, but I'd be willing to bet that those who audition memorized rarely get asked to do it again a different way.