A Good Audition and An Industry Standard

The Good Audition.

Okay everyone. Here’s an audition story for the books. Well for my book ;). 

So. It started with a submission on a very useful website for casting calls. Which lead to an invite sing and read material for the character I submitted for and make a self tape. The instructions for the self tape came with a link to a Tony performance and one qualifier, “Only submit if you know you can tap at the level in this footage.” Cool. No problem. Done. “If we like your tape you will be called in to Tap on Wednesday the 8th.” Hmmmm. Not quite as cool. Maybe a problem. Definitely can do the tap. Definitely can’t do it on Wednesday. Like not allowed. Still using a boot…sometimes. 

But ya know, what the hell right? Go for it. So I went for it. And submitted my videos. And WOOO. Got called in for the audition. The girls called in for this role were awesome. I honestly just had a blast being in the room because everyone was such a weirdo. Like everyone was different- except that you could tell that every one of them was a total weirdo in their on way. I felt right at home. I love a room full of “comedic” actors. Whatever that means. I think it just means that they let themselves be more weird than most of the population. From this point on I really had no idea how to handle myself. There are no rules for this. I had discussed with the casting director my situation, she knew I couldn’t dance (yet). And yet I had no clue what to do with myself while in that room. And standing there I still had no idea if I was going to be allowed to stay.

Things that went through my mind as I was waiting/standing in the back with one tennis shoe and one tap shoe on (just in case they wanted to see that one of my feet could tap… :

What the hell should I do?

What am I doing?

I am such a weirdo in the back not dancing but kind of marking the motions. 

The dance captain who is teaching just looked at me again oh my gosh should I have gone up to her before hand to explain? 

Should I have gone up to the table to introduce myself and explain myself?

The casting director said she would explain. 

There are no rules here. Maybe I should have taken more initiative. 

Oh my gosh who am I kidding. 

I can’t even dance. They might just send me home right after this. 

Wait what story am I telling myself? That I am a freak in the back of the room? If I tell myself this then that will subconsciously tell others that that is who I am. 

Then it was over and they were ready to make cuts…. And then….

Holy shit. They didn’t. They kept me. 

Then another cut…

THEY KEPT ME AGAIN. 

Then I got to sing and read. Then I got to come back in the afternoon and sing and read again. WHAT.  It’s just crazy. It makes me think about all these other times…. When I am doubting myself or wondering if I did the right thing or said the right thing or thinking of the 70 other things I could have done or said that would have been better… maybe I am Ph.D.doing and saying the exact right things. And maybe the story in my head- the story I tell myself- is ?more important than anything else. It is actually fascinating how true this can be. A very common question to be asked at auditions is “How would you rate your dancing on a scale of 1-10?” Like professionals are actually asking you how you think and feel about your dancing abilities- and that is the first impression they get of those abilities. You shouldn’t lie. You can’t say your tapping is a 10 if you’ve taken 3 dance classes in your life. This won’t go over well and it will come around to bite you. You do, however, have a huge opportunity to share a confident, big version of yourself or a self-conscious minimizing version of yourself. And when the story you are telling yourself is a big version, the story other people receive of you- will be big. 

The Industry Standard.

While working on a song a longggg time ago someone who was helping me work on the song said to me “You better play that role while you’re young because you won’t have those notes when you’re older”. I’m sorry, what? Excuse me? Also the actual age of the role is closer to middle-aged than to my age then. And my current age now. This clearly has stuck with me and is now revealing to me something more widespread in our industry that I just don’t understand. There is this expectation in our industry that if you are a belter you will lose your ability at some point in your career (sooner more likely than later) or at the very least your ability will diminish. And this is because for many people this is how it works. God willing it won’t be true for me. There are many things that can get in the way of vocal growth- things outside our control, and I am not here to judge people who have had difficulties with their voices. It is such a delicate gift. And so easy to push it the wrong way. I have been there. I am here, however to question a widespread standard that has been set in our industry. I think we can do better. 

Our vocal anatomy does not finish maturing until we reach our late twenties/thirty. So this brings me to…if this is the case… we shouldn’t even expect to reach our full potential until our late twenties at the latest. This is not to say people can’t have incredible voices before then. Young singers are incredible. But what so many singers don’t understand- is that they are nowhere near peak development early on in their training, and there is so much room for growth and for setting in healthy technique. And then once we reach full development-even more is possible. Think about growing out of your teen years into your fully grown body. Once your muscles have finished developing- THAT is the time your body now has this capability to train and get even more strong. Because it is not working so hard to grow and develop. So how is it not the same with singing? What are musical theatre professionals at large doing (especially belters) that is causing singers to lose ability so quickly as they age in their careers? If we talk good care, the opposite should be true. Now honestly I recognize it is pretty ball-sy of me to be saying all of this. I do not have a Ph.D. in vocal anatomy. But I just think we can do better. In a couple of years as long as I am studying and training healthfully, shouldn’t that song sound better than it does now? It certainly sounds better now than it did one year ago…So thanks to my teacher, my odds are good. If you are a young singer (above the age of about 16) and you do not feel like you are learning and improving with your lessons, find the teacher who will teach you what you need to know. Good teachers are out there. They just tend to be the ones who don’t advertise themselves as loudly as the others.