Had my audition Friday night, thought it went pretty well - if nothing else, I managed to make the director laugh a coupla times. I had fun with the little piece I read (they had a selection of readings for us to choose from) and really enjoyed the dance combo. That was set to the end of the
Pirates of Penzance overture, so the choreographer had us finish with "random swordfighting". There were 4 of us in my dance group, so we paired ourselves off. My partner "killed" me, so I had fun dying big; ended up on my back on the floor, legs in the air, which came crashing down on the last chord of the music - hit the "button", so to speak. Yep, great fun. :D
I was delighted to get an email the next morning inviting me to callbacks for Dame Carruthers Sunday night! The email directed us to follow the link to the sides & music for the role, and I have a copy of
Yeomen, so I loaded Carruthers' music onto my iPod and wore it out. There were 3 of us being called back for Dame Carruthers, one of whom was a lot younger than I would have expected them to consider. We all read the side a little differently, and I thought any of the readings could be valid; no clues there. When we got to the music, I ended up singing first, followed by the other two, both of whom sang quite well. The director then asked me to start the audition chunk again (though she ended up letting me sing the whole bit), which had me wondering how I'd screwed up the first time. :p
Monday was a long day, trying not to think about the waiting to hear. Checked my email as soon as I got home - nothing. The afternoon wore on, still nothing, so I started wondering which of the other two "contestants" had gotten the role. After all, they always contact the "yes"es first. I finally got an email shortly before 6 that began like every other "Thanks but no thanks" email I've ever gotten: "Thank you for auditioning for..." I skimmed over it - general rehearsal schedule, uh huh; dues, OK; first read-thru Sunday, got it. Then I looked again - they were offering me the role!
At long last I've ended this year's string of auditions with callbacks but no roles! What's even better is that it's the biggest company I've worked with to date in terms of the size of the stage. Not as big a role as Sara Lee, but I'll get a solo (with chorus back-up), a yummy quartet and a duet to sing. The solo goes pretty low - a G below middle C, I think - so I'll definitely need to work to learn to project those low notes over the orchestra. Can't wait to start! :)
