Cooper: Diane, last night I dreamed I was eating a large, tasteless gumdrop,
and awoke to discover I was chewing on one of my foam disposable earplugs.
Perhaps I should consider moderating my nighttime coffee consumption.
-- "Twin Peaks" |
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I guess I won't have to decide about those other auditions after all, since Stage 48 has cast me as Yost in "Sleepy Hollow". (Production #16 for me, for the record. 11th musical.) Yost is kind of a comic relief character. How'd that happen. I'm not that funny. And yet, in "Oklahoma!", Ali Hakim is kind of a comical character, too. Hmm.
Dan on 08.18.06 @ 12:08 PM CT [link]
Another audition. This one had singing, dancing, and cold reading. I like an audition -- like a show -- that gives you stuff to do. When they were teaching us the song, which was fairly simple, and I was singing with the other guys, I was actually thinking, you know, I could nail this one. But, of course, when I got up there to do it alone, I was my same old boring, lifeless self. The cool thing is there are 3 more auditions before the end of the month that work for me. After that, though, I might be stuck for a while. Which means I might just have to take a chorus part at the last one in August. That's still a week and a half away, so no need to make that call yet.
Dan on 08.17.06 @ 09:41 PM CT [link]
Millionaire held auditions today in Chicago -- technically Schaumburg -- from 9-4. I thought I'd be clever and not get there at 6 or 7 in the morning, you know, and avoid the initial crush. I got there after 10:30. Big mistake. They were holding these auditions at Medieval Times. I had read online that the parking lot was full by 7:30. It was still full when I drove by. I ended up parking in an apparently vacant office park about a half mile away. Even though I was in line at 11:00, it was a ponderously slow line. And I was amazed at how many young people were in it. I thought only senior citizens still watched it. Don't I ever get tired of being wrong? Anyway, it was hot enough that I ended up drinking my own water bottle and another that I bought from some guy selling them on his own for a buck each -- undercutting the $2 water occasionally hawked by the Medieval Times people. And all that sun reddened up my face and neck really good. My long-sleeved shirt protected my arms, but my Ancient Order Of The Killer Owl baseball cap only seemed to protect the very top of my skull.
At least the people with the show were kind enough to squeeze us all in. Their sessions of about 250 people would have left me on the outside by the announced quitting time, but around 3:00 they brought everyone in who was waiting which caused them to run well past the allotted time. (Sessions 9, 10, and 11 -- I was 10 -- were done simultaneously.) I think I finally started taking the test around 5:00. And I passed! (That right there is surely the peak moment of this adventure, by the way.) My interview was typically quick and undoubtedly unimpressive, and I can be pretty sure to receive a "thanks for trying -- please keep watching" postcard in a few weeks. But I at least can cling to the fact that this was my 7th audition with them, and the 6th time I've passed the written test. (I was also surprised at the low level of passing, at least compared to my previous experience. I'm guessing around 15 per "session", if my multi-session group was typical)
Dan on 08.15.06 @ 09:03 PM CT [link]
Patience is my virtue. And that's not braggin'.
I won a staring contest with a fire-breathing dragon.
Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll be here all month.
Dan on 08.09.06 @ 02:38 PM CT [link]
Is this -- "Helena" -- what the kids are listening to? Sign me up, kids! I'm pretty sure they're not listening to Sparks, although in a perfect world, we all would be.
Dan on 08.05.06 @ 10:21 PM CT [link]
That's two auditions now since "Oklahoma!" ended. Tonight's was one of those where singing is key. You sing 16 bars of a song -- which isn't very much at all -- and, well, that's all there is. And my singing is dodgy at best. It would take a miraculous convergence of pitch and full, vibrant tone for me to stand out. And that's a miracle we're still waiting for. It's difficult to be objective, but I think I must still have some nervousness at auditions -- at least enough to show up in my voice; which kind of works against getting that full, vibrant tone. On the plus side, that's what makes the auditions exciting still. I'm thinking now there are probably a couple weeks before another potential audition comes up on the old calendar.
Dan on 08.01.06 @ 08:36 PM CT [link]