My first audition experience...

Despite what the title says, this was not technically my first audition. I "auditioned" for my senior production in high school.....but, I was already cast before the actual audition. Also, at the end of last semester, I auditioned for the spring shows here at App, but again, the audition process isn't that "professional" so I don't count that either.

But this past Saturday, February 13th, I, along with 8 other people from my department, auditioned for Boone's outdoor summer drama Horn In The West. Horn In The West tells the story of how the city of Boone was settled and how it got it's name......from Daniel Boone if you hadn't already figured that out.

I woke up Saturday morning at 7:00 am and showered and got ready, then I picked up my friend Liz at her dorm and we made our way to the theater where auditions were being held. We got there around 8:30 and the doors didn't open until 9 so we sat in the jeep and ate blueberry muffins. Around 9, the rest of our friends showed up and we went inside and filled out the audition form and turned in our resumes and headshots and got our audition numbers. At this point, it's about 9:30 and dance auditions didn't start until 10:30, so some of us walked to Burger King for breakfast and coffee.

Around 10:15 we walked back and changed and stretched/warmed up. The dance auditions were pretty easy. We did a few ballet moves across the stage and a warm up movement exercise and then we learned an easy/short little routine. Then we partnered up and did lifts. Like i said, very simple. It only took 30 minutes.

After the dance auditions were over, we all went back up to the warm up room and changed clothes and then lined back up downstairs for our monologue auditions. Since our group of friends got their first, we were all grouped together....it was great! Lucky me thought got the first number so I had to go first.....the one person out of the group who had never done a professional audition before!! Well, the monologue that I performed was from Lost In Yonkers by Neil Simon and the song I sung was a small bit from His Eye Is On The Sparrow. My monologue went very well! I didn't struggle for a line at all and once I started it, I don't really remember doing it....it happened so naturally. But then we got to the song. I sang it a capella and I started on too high of a note. I was so nervous singing I could hear it in my voice and the whole time I was just ready to get the song over with. I don't even know if I sang the right words in the right order!! But I finally finished the song and walked off and sat down. I can't describe how I felt afterwards.

After everyone had finished, we waited outside for about 5 or 6 minutes and when they brought the call back list out we had all gotten called back for either chorus or acting and some for both! Once we signed up for a call back time slot we all went to Los Arcorois and ate lunch.

Chorus auditions started at 2:30 so we got back to the warm up room and sat around for about 45 minutes til those started and we ended up all doing the call back as a group so they could see if we could sing together as a group. That was kind of annoying because we aren't singers, we're actors. But we did sound good together.

It's now about 3:20 and my friend Will and I had been called back to read together, for the two young leads. So we got our scripts and found a place at the theater to rehearse for a while because our call back time was at 4. Keep in mind that it's around 3:20, so we don't think we have that much time. So, we run through our lines a few times and figure out exactly what we want to do with blocking and interaction because our two characters are love interests. Luckily, Will and I have great chemistry together so it wasn't that hard to figure out.

We don't end up doing our call back until 6. Somehow, they got really behind. Did I mention that it was about 45 degrees in the hallway?!?! It was......the air conditioner was on and no one knew how to turn it off. It was ridiculous! Once Will and I finally were able to get into the theater we did great! I think the director was really surprised out how well we worked together because we did two scenes together and after each one we heard her say "Wow!" "Oh! Good!" Haha, so hopefully we made an impression!

I can't explain how amazing Saturday was! Besides the bitter cold and the waiting around, I had such a good time!! I went into this audition not confident and nervous and not expecting anything to come of it and I end up reading for the lead role!! Do you understand how excited I am going to be if Will and I get cast as the leads?! I'd be just as excited for the understudies because we still get to act and get paid! I wish I could explain to you how freaking amazing that would be!! It's unimaginable! The bad thing is is that we won't find out for another 5 or 6 weeks because they have 2 more auditions to hold.....1 at NCTC and then they hold a 2nd audition in Boone in March I think. But oh I hope we get it!!