Friday 30 August 2013

I finally took someone's advice....and hey, it was my own advice.


So, today I did an audition. It was a fairly last minute affair. I found out about it at about 2pm yesterday and the audition time was 12.10 today. All they wanted was a song in the style of Rogers and Hammerstein. OK, I thought, this is doable. 

What have I got in my rep folder (remember that one from the last blog? There will be a quiz later)? Unbelievably nothing by R&H (apart from "Climb Every Mountain" but that isn't what they are looking for. I know! Second guessing, but the part I was up for required a belt voice - think Ethel Merman if you are not sure what I mean). There wasn't a huge amount of notice but just enough that the niggling voice in my head piped up to say,

"Learn summat new Claire. You know you want to". 

OK, Voice in My Head, what do you suggest? 

"Well you always wanted to learn "Johnny One Note" that would be great". 

Hmm, I thought, and walked towards my bookcase full of music. NOOOOO! Voice in My Head, not this time. I will not do that to myself. I will sing summat I know well and that I know I can sing under pressure. You are not going to dupe me into making an arse of myself this time!

So, I chose the piece that had gone well at the last audition (not the one I stopped twice in). A piece I know inside out and backwards and know will always work for me, but not in the style asked for. In my opinion, particularly with one days notice, (the penny has finally dropped) they just need to know I can sing. Not that I can learn (and probably mess up) a song in 24 hours.

I arrived at the audition venue with not much time to spare but they were running late anyway. I was given some script to look over, which I did. All fairly straight forward and I felt great. Not particularly nervous, just that excited nervous feeling you get when you know you are fully capable of doing something, well, good! I was so relaxed I even had a bit of a laugh and a joke with two guys waiting to go in and had that overwhelming feeling we all crave. The feeling that everything is going to be alright. And I have to say, it really was. I got in the room. Sang my song, no, smashed my song (in my head at least. I even mentally punched the air on the finally chord). I sat down and had a chat with the director and then went through the scene. Rushed it a bit but did not stumble over any lines. For a bit of sight reading it was not half bad. Then, that was that. It was over and I left, satisfied I had done my absolute best and that "messing up" was not going to be the reason I didn't get the job.

For your information, I am pretty sure I did not get the job. As I left I passed two other women in for the same part and they were, probably, around 15 years older than me (but looked fabulous, I hasten to add) so chances are they were looking for older. And that is fine. It would have been a great to do the show and may, or may not, have been life changing. However, the fact that I did a good audition, did not make an arse of myself, did not wave at the panel as I left the room or have my skirt tucked in my knickers means the audition experience was a little life changing in itself and that will do for me (for now!).

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