This weekend I participated in the "Rocky Mountain Summer Stock Theatre Auditions" up at UVU. It was something that I had never done before, but I caught wind of it on Facebook so I decided to sign up and give it a try.
After I signed up, I sat down and researched all of the different companies that were coming and learned more about them. I had looked at all the theaters before hand but hadn't actually done a lot of research. Wish I had. Turns out, only 2 or 3 of the 13 companies going were of any interest to me. One of them was The Neil Simon Festival which is here in town. It would be awesome to find something here in town. And sure, there's always the possibility of USF, but I kind of doubt I'm on the radar for that because I'm not a classical BFA so I won't really be pushed for the internship. and I sort of didn't have a great audition so I don't see why they would want to hire me. And then there's the monetary reality of it all...
PAUSE
My husband, Kollin, and I work for a company here in town as onsite managers for a storage facility. It's a great little gig because it comes with an apartment and I still get like $300 a month on top of that for only working 2 days a week. It's perfect for us right now! But if I get hired this summer, it sort of puts a kink in things.
First of all, my boss isn't very keen on the idea of Kollin working in the office for the summer. He wants a "feminine touch to the office" so I was hired and Kollin does maintenance and stuff. But Kollin worked in the office last summer because I was in Lake Powell when we were hired. But my boss doesn't want Kollin in the office this summer.
Second of all, if my boss wasn't willing to let Kollin work in the office, we would have to move. Which we really don't want to do at the moment. Which means we would be paying rent.
Which brings us to our second point. If we have to move because I get hired this summer and decide that I want to perform, I would have to be making AT LEAST $900 a month. The reason being: if we moved, we would want to find a nice place like the one we are in now (I refuse to live in the basement ever again) because we like the space and the "newness" and the modern appliances and everything. Apartments like that are $550+ a month in Cedar City. And we don't have money for that in our current financial situation. So I would have to be pulling in quite a bit to even make it plausible.
So, I sort of decided that I didn't want to do anything this summer. I decided that it was sort of more of a hassle than I wanted to deal with, especially because we can't afford to have to move. Plus, this summer our ward is going on a family trek, my family is going to Tahoe, and Kollin wants to go to Disneyland with our tax return. And I want to do all of those things. I really want to spend the summer with Kollin doing fun things and learning how to scuba dive and go on adventures. So I really decided that it would be ok if I didn't get hired anywhere.
PLAY
I went to auditions, and performed my pieces. The set up was like nothing I had been a part of before. We were divided by number into groups of 25-30 ish and were pulled, group by group, into a waiting room behind the stage at the Noorda Theatre (which is such a crappy space...it eats sound sooo badly). We would file onto the stage one at a time and introduce ourselves and our number, and then we had 90 seconds to perform in front of all 13 companies. At this point, I was going because I had already paid $35 to register so I thought it would be a good experience
But when I got there, I learned that the Carriage House Theatre from Canada, was there and that they were doing "Beauty and the Beast" and I got really excited and suddenly I really wanted to perform this summer. But my audition wasn't geared towards B and B at all, so I figured I wouldn't get an callback.
About 30 minutes after my group had all finished, our callbacks were posted to the website. I was called back for Brigham's Playhouse (in St. George), The Neil Simon Festival (in Cedar City), Jake's Chaparral (in Kanab), Pickleville Playhouse (in Bear Lake) and Mack's Inn (in Montana or Wyoming or something like that). But not Carriage House Theatre. Which I was actually bummed out over but also I knew I wouldn't get a callback for them because my song didn't fit. And then Carly and Alec told me that they had called back some weird people and I didn't feel bad anymore. But so help me! I will play Belle someday!!! haha ;)
Anyhow.
I decided to go to the callback for Brigham's Playhouse, and the Neil Simon Festival since both of those were close to home and held the possibility of still being able to work in the office and keep my job/apartment. I refused to go to Jake's after the experience a peer of mine had last summer with them; Mack's Inn was simply too far away with not nearly enough money to make it worth it; Pickleville is coming to SUU this Thursday so they told us to just go to the audition then. But I don't really want to work for them either. They are doing "Hairspray" and a "Juandito Bandito" which...I'm not a fan of. Plus they are forever away, and I wouldn't make nearly enough to make it worth it. So I don't think I'm going to go.
Brigham's Playhouse is doing a very strange season, but they are close enough that I could work still and live at home after the rehearsal process was complete and we were into performances. And the director seemed really kind and seemed to really like me. But he still has about 3 weeks worth of auditions before he casts his season.
Neil Simon Festival called me back and had me read for the ditsy, mediocre character in "Hank Williams" which I do not want to be here. I don't want to be in another western this summer. But Richard Bugg (my professor and the guy who runs it) wasn't there, so I'm thinking of auditioning for them again when he IS there (when they hold auditions at SUU).
Brigham's pays about $150 more than Neil Simon does, but Neil Simon isn't 45 minutes away from me...
Either way, it all depends on whether or not my boss is willing to work with us. Which I think he wants to because he doesn't want to have to hire and train someone else.
To be honest though, I really don't know if I want to perform this summer or not. I really want to travel and go on adventures and write in my journal and go hiking and just have fun this summer with my husband. Plus I kind of want a break. I haven't really stopped since Fiddler last February...I went from Fiddler to Lake Powell to Hamlet to Next to Normal (true I was only a body double, but it was still rehearsals and late nights), to Toyland to Minutes to Rent to Merrily (the independent project I'm working on with Alec and Carly for our Edge project). I don't know if I want to jump right into anything. Especially if I get cast in the fall musical...which I hope I do.
RMSSTA was an awesome experience. It was an opportunity to put my name out there even if I didn't make as big of an impression as I wanted to. I was happy that I auditioned even though I don't know what I will be able to do this summer.
<3: CourtneyRae<3
Monday, February 22, 2016
Friday, February 5, 2016
The Suits: Memories Last Longer Than Dreams
Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to travel up to Salt Lake City and perform at a Rural Utah Legislative dinner. There were 5 of us, all BFA's, and Melinda.
We left at 11 in the morning, driving in a mini van, laughing as Melinda told us she "doesn't speak mini van"...so good=]. While we drove, we rehearsed two short group numbers (a mash up from Rent and Down to the River)because those who had invited us wanted us to spontaneously bust out into song "like we do". We had a good laugh about that...people who just think musical theatre kids bust out into beautifully harmonized and synchronized songs...
Anyhow.
We got SLC, and grabbed some lunch at City Creek. Then we went to the capitol building and met up with Dona. She is SUU' liaison who wanted us to "bust out in the capitol like you do". She is a very funny and kind woman, and I greatly enjoyed her company. We sang all over the capitol building...it was so fun. Plus the acoustics were incredible.
We took several little tours and saw different parts of the building and eventually we met up with President Wyatt (President of SUU). We sang for him and talked with him for a little bit. He's a funny guy=]. As he talked with us, he told us about a book he had just finished reading. It's call "Stuffocation". Which is intriguing in and of itself. But it's all about how our society is so focused on stuff. Just buying stuff and having stuff and getting more stuff. That we've stopped enjoying life. The author argued that we should be trying to get experience. That we should be collecting experiences. He also told us that the author states that "memories last longer than dreams" (or something super close to that). Which at first I thought that made zero sense. But then we talked about it in the car and it suddently seemed very profound.
Dreams and wistful. They are places or things that we want and hope to aqquire. But if we don't actually do anything about it, then it simply doesn't matter how big they were. Memories, on the other hand, are the actual fruits of our labors. Memories come about when we are in pursuit of our dreams. We talked about how that applies to the theatre world and important our memories are and how dreams only get you so far...it was a very insightful conversation.
Around 5 ish (after many shenanigans or not speaking mini van)we met up at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with our incredible accompanist Shane Sommers. We each ran through our pieces and talked and laughed and then we waited for all of the important people to arrive.
The Suits came in and eventually everything got started (20 minutes late). Each of us had a solo and then we sang Down to the River as our group number (because we tried the Rent mashup but the space made it hard to hear our notes in that number for some reason). Right as we started, I leaned over to Carly and told her that this reminded me of performing at Amangiri over the summer with those celebrities and CEO's and famous people from other countries who flew in and watched us perform while we ate. She laughed and said "that's true, why am I nervous for this?". We smiled and then, one by one we had each performed and suddenly it was over.
We got to sit and eat afterwards. And the food was divine! Cold. By the time we got to eat. But divine! ;)
We watched a short film called "Back Up The Mountain" that told the story of the building and beginning of SUU and it was really a neat experience. A cheesy film. But watching it sort of instilled in me a greater sense of pride for the school that I am attending. Sure, it's got it's flaws. It has plenty of drawbacks or imperfections. Every school does. But when I really stop to think about, I wouldn't want to be anywhere. SUU really, truly, honestly is a fantastic place to be.
Eventually it was time to leave the world of The Suits and head back to Cedar City.
The drive home was filled with conversations and singing and laughter and sooooo much fog! It was incredibly thick at times, I was a little surprised. But Melinda did fabulously, even for not "speaking mini van" ;).
One thing that I loved about this trip, was that we were the entertainment for this big fancy meeting. Us! Musical Theatre students! That is just so cool to me. Granted, our fabulous dean put a plug in for us to go, but still. How cool is that? To get to go and share our passions with people I don't usually picture enjoying Theatre. It was such a cool experience.
Also, I loved being with Melinda all day. She has such a wealth of knowledge...every time she talks I just want to take notes and memorize everything she says. She told us about her most valuable voice teacher and about how everything she tells us during Musical Theatre is thanks to him. She told us how she worked for USF all through college in some capacity or another, and that during rehearsals she would sit and just fill up journals and journals of notes about everything she learned and observed. She told us how those experiences are how she learned; that those experiences are her most valued education. Honestly it made me want to follow in her footsteps. If I don't get cast this summer, I would love to sit in on rehearsals and just take notes. I would love the opportunity to sit at the feet of these theatrical giants and learn from their craft. I would LOVE to do that. So much so, that I honestly would be ok if I wasn't hired anywhere just so I would have the opportunity to do so.
Overall, this trip was so fun and I was soooo glad that I went. It was definitely an experience that I was happy to acquire; definitely full of memories that I am quite fond of and happy to file away in my brain.
<3: CourtneRae<3
We left at 11 in the morning, driving in a mini van, laughing as Melinda told us she "doesn't speak mini van"...so good=]. While we drove, we rehearsed two short group numbers (a mash up from Rent and Down to the River)because those who had invited us wanted us to spontaneously bust out into song "like we do". We had a good laugh about that...people who just think musical theatre kids bust out into beautifully harmonized and synchronized songs...
Anyhow.
We got SLC, and grabbed some lunch at City Creek. Then we went to the capitol building and met up with Dona. She is SUU' liaison who wanted us to "bust out in the capitol like you do". She is a very funny and kind woman, and I greatly enjoyed her company. We sang all over the capitol building...it was so fun. Plus the acoustics were incredible.
We took several little tours and saw different parts of the building and eventually we met up with President Wyatt (President of SUU). We sang for him and talked with him for a little bit. He's a funny guy=]. As he talked with us, he told us about a book he had just finished reading. It's call "Stuffocation". Which is intriguing in and of itself. But it's all about how our society is so focused on stuff. Just buying stuff and having stuff and getting more stuff. That we've stopped enjoying life. The author argued that we should be trying to get experience. That we should be collecting experiences. He also told us that the author states that "memories last longer than dreams" (or something super close to that). Which at first I thought that made zero sense. But then we talked about it in the car and it suddently seemed very profound.
Dreams and wistful. They are places or things that we want and hope to aqquire. But if we don't actually do anything about it, then it simply doesn't matter how big they were. Memories, on the other hand, are the actual fruits of our labors. Memories come about when we are in pursuit of our dreams. We talked about how that applies to the theatre world and important our memories are and how dreams only get you so far...it was a very insightful conversation.
Around 5 ish (after many shenanigans or not speaking mini van)we met up at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with our incredible accompanist Shane Sommers. We each ran through our pieces and talked and laughed and then we waited for all of the important people to arrive.
The Suits came in and eventually everything got started (20 minutes late). Each of us had a solo and then we sang Down to the River as our group number (because we tried the Rent mashup but the space made it hard to hear our notes in that number for some reason). Right as we started, I leaned over to Carly and told her that this reminded me of performing at Amangiri over the summer with those celebrities and CEO's and famous people from other countries who flew in and watched us perform while we ate. She laughed and said "that's true, why am I nervous for this?". We smiled and then, one by one we had each performed and suddenly it was over.
We got to sit and eat afterwards. And the food was divine! Cold. By the time we got to eat. But divine! ;)
We watched a short film called "Back Up The Mountain" that told the story of the building and beginning of SUU and it was really a neat experience. A cheesy film. But watching it sort of instilled in me a greater sense of pride for the school that I am attending. Sure, it's got it's flaws. It has plenty of drawbacks or imperfections. Every school does. But when I really stop to think about, I wouldn't want to be anywhere. SUU really, truly, honestly is a fantastic place to be.
Eventually it was time to leave the world of The Suits and head back to Cedar City.
The drive home was filled with conversations and singing and laughter and sooooo much fog! It was incredibly thick at times, I was a little surprised. But Melinda did fabulously, even for not "speaking mini van" ;).
One thing that I loved about this trip, was that we were the entertainment for this big fancy meeting. Us! Musical Theatre students! That is just so cool to me. Granted, our fabulous dean put a plug in for us to go, but still. How cool is that? To get to go and share our passions with people I don't usually picture enjoying Theatre. It was such a cool experience.
Also, I loved being with Melinda all day. She has such a wealth of knowledge...every time she talks I just want to take notes and memorize everything she says. She told us about her most valuable voice teacher and about how everything she tells us during Musical Theatre is thanks to him. She told us how she worked for USF all through college in some capacity or another, and that during rehearsals she would sit and just fill up journals and journals of notes about everything she learned and observed. She told us how those experiences are how she learned; that those experiences are her most valued education. Honestly it made me want to follow in her footsteps. If I don't get cast this summer, I would love to sit in on rehearsals and just take notes. I would love the opportunity to sit at the feet of these theatrical giants and learn from their craft. I would LOVE to do that. So much so, that I honestly would be ok if I wasn't hired anywhere just so I would have the opportunity to do so.
Overall, this trip was so fun and I was soooo glad that I went. It was definitely an experience that I was happy to acquire; definitely full of memories that I am quite fond of and happy to file away in my brain.
<3: CourtneRae<3
The "Real" World
About a month ago, I auditioned for Tuacahn's summer stock productions (Peter Pan, Tarzan, and Hunchback of Notre Dame). It was technically my first "real world" audition (if you don't include my audition for USF internship program).
After reading the online character break downs, I had it in my head that I was a perfect candidate to play Wendy Darling in Peter Pan. Online it said that they were going to cast an adult around my age, that she only needed to move well (bonus) and that she needed to be no taller than 5'3". Which, I'm technically 5'5" so i made sure to wear flats and did my best to dress for the character. I wore a pale pink dress and my hair was in fancy pigtails. I tried to look as young and as youthful as I possibly could. I had thought about my audition for weeks and had finally decided to sing "Astonishing" from Little Women (as apposed to "Might as Well Be Spring" from Fair Ground or whatever it's called) because it could potentially show off my voice rather well.
My audition went pretty great. But for some unknown reason, I had it in my head that I was going to get a call back because "how could I not?". I had played Wendy before, I had experience with a fly system...I thought I had it all figured out. But I finished singing and wasn't extended a callback.
PAUSE
Now, you have to know that I didn't ever really want to go work at Tuacahn. I'm not a huge fan of the fact that they tend to place spectacle and effects before the actual story-telling. But I really don't want to move away from Kollin for the summer and Tuacahn is one of the 3 places I could've worked that are relatively close. There's: USF, The Neil Simon Festival, and Tuacahn. It would be a great experience to work with Tuacahn, but I haven't ever been one of those "I have to work with them or I will die!" kind of people.
PLAY
I brushed it off, thinking that they just wanted to see everyone move and dance and such before handing out callbacks but then several people were given sides right after they sang. But I kept telling myself that they just needed to see me dance first and then I would get a callback.
Again, I don't have a clue why I thought I would. I really don't. I guess for some reason I just assumed that I would be hired right out of the gate. I don't know.
Anyhow.
The dance audition began and they split us up into "dancers" and "movers". I was part of the mover group. The routine was quite simple. But because it was an audition, of course I got in my own brain and made it a lot more difficult than it needed to be. So I had to work at it a lot more than I should've had to.
I felt that I did a really good job though, when it came down to our performances. I walked away feeling good about the work I had done (even though I didn't receive a callback). The only thing: I was extremely discouraged.
I watched the "dancers" routine in envy because I cannot dance like that to save my life. I want to be able to...I really do. I wished with all of my heart that I could just throw myself into dance with every fiber of my being and just "be good" at it. I wished my body would just be flexible and just move that way. I wished my hips weren't screwed up and I wished that I could get the MRI's I need in order to start fixing the problem...I drove home with all those thoughts swirling around in my head.
At some point I was talking to Carly about it all and she was telling me about a conversation she had with an SUU alum that worked with them last summer and he told her that Tuacahn really just wants people who are strong dancers. And that's a little disheartening...but I guess it is what it is.
Anyhow.
I'm not really sure what the point of this entry is. Auditioning for Tuacahn reiterated to me that I really need to learn how to dance. Which means I really need to figure out what's wrong with my hips. So...that's good I guess. It reminded me that there is always room for improvement and that there are things I need I need to be working on and consistently improving. I just don't exactly know where to start. I guess. I don't know.
Auditioning is scary but it doesn't really scare me. That makes just about zero sense I know. But singing in front of people doesn't really bother me...dancing in front of people bothers me...I think that's why it's scary for me. But hopefully I'll be able to throw myself into becoming more fit and healthy and flexible and a dancer just as soon as I figure out what's wrong with my hips.
The "real world" is out there. And I'm not really ready for it. Not yet...at least I don't feel like I am. I'm used to auditioning for people who know me and know my talents. But out there? Out in the "real world"? No one knows who I am or what I can do. I only have that audition to show them. I only have a few moments and I have to give it everything I've got. Which is honestly a little scarier than I thought...
<3: CourtneyRae<3
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)