9.4.10

A New Life!

Wow it's been a while since my last post. Since then, I've had two auditions in Pittsburgh, one for CLO and one for a company called Latshaw Productions. I'm in the mood to write, so I'll fill you in on both as best I remember... it's been a long few months.


My CLO audition was a bit of a debacle. I stayed at my cousins house the night before so that I could get to my audition without having to drive from home that day. I had to run to Kinko's before to get my music photocopied and a binder for my music and my resume. With all of the traffic on the parkway I got downtown with only a few minutes to spare, but when I walked into the Benedum for the audition no one knew what I was talking about. I called my friend Ted and when he didn't answer his phone, the usher said, "Maybe you're supposed to go to the Stage Door?" Which sounded familiar so they told me how to get there and I literally ran down the block to the stage door entrance. I walked into the theatre with two minutes to spare, had to fill out my audition sheet as quickly as possible. I was concerned that I would forget my lyrics but I went in with "Neverland" from Peter Pan and I felt that it went exceedingly well. They asked me to wait outside and they would let us know who got a callback. I was, unfortunately, not one of the ones to get a callback and of course I was disappointed but the more rejection I hear the stronger I'll become. I don't ever want to hear no, but the no's will ultimately make the yes's that much sweeter.


My audition for Latshaw Productions was even worse, lol. I, again, stayed at my cousin's house the night before in order to be ready since the audition was in Monroeville and his house is 10 minutes from the audition space. The entire weekend didn't go as planned. I hung out with my friend Sally on Friday night and ended up dying her hair which took WAY longer than planned. We were up until 9am Saturday morning. We slept for a few hours and then got up and went to get her hair cut. Between the nap and getting her hair cut we stopped at my house for me to get packed for the weekend in Pittsburgh. We went into the Cranberry area and it took us a while to find a salon that didn't have a wait and we finally ended up at Walmart. I ended up leaving Sally at Walmart and leaving for Pittsburgh in order to get there to meet Andy for Ted's show.

I was late getting to Andy's due to the events of the day and the traffic coming into the city. We also had some driving problems so we came into the show about 5-10 minutes late. I felt really bad but we apparently didn't miss much of the show. The only problem was that our tickets were directly in the center of a row and the place was packed so we had to climb over people to get to our seats. It was fantastic... the girls in the show were phenomenal, especially the girl who played Rizzo. Every time she opened her mouth to sing I had chills over my ENTIRE body. Even my scalp had chills! I got a little teary when she sang There are Worse Things I Could Do. After the show we saw Ted for a bit and congratulated him on a great show (he was the director) and then we headed back to Andy's house. We watched Singin' in the Rain since I had never seen it... I know, it's hard to believe, right? :-) After the movie was over I headed back to Curtis' house to get ready for my audition the next day.

I was having trouble printing Maybe This Time in the key that I wanted so I decided to abandon that idea for my backup. I had brought my "Thoroughly Modern Millie" book as my other song because I wanted to have two jazzy songs (that's the type of music that Latshaw performs). So I went to get my other book so that I could be prepared to sing On my Own from Les Mis... and found out I had brought the wrong book. Needless to say I started freaking out. I ended up deciding on Not for the Life of Me from "Millie" and Someone Like You from "Jekyll and Hyde". I wasn't happy about it but I had to adapt. I REALLY need to get an audition binder together.

The next day I started out from my house at 10:30 so that I could get to Kinko's in time to get my music xeroxed to go into my binder. I didn't know the address to the Kinko's so I had to Google Map it and when I got to the address... it didn't exist. So I drove around until I found the one on Penn Avenue. I was REALLY running late at this point (it was 11:05 by the time I got to Kinko's and my audition was at 11:30) and I was freaking out that I wasn't going to make it. I got my music photo copied and 3-hole punched and into my binder and I was on my way to the audition site. However, when I got to the place where Max (my GPS) told me I was supposed to go, there was no school. I stopped and talked to a guy who told me how to get to the correct road (apparently I was on "Haymaker" and needed to be on "Old Haymaker". So I started driving in the direction that he told me... and ended up passing the school. I had to go about 15 minutes out of my way to get back to the school. When it hit 11:30 I just started bawling because I knew I was screwed. I called Rachel, who also had an audition and she helped me get to the school and told the director what was happening. They were really great, but I was still 15 minutes late for my audition.

I walked in, marked my music where I wanted to sing and almost immediately walked into the audition room. Even though everything else in the day was horrible, I sang really well. It was probably my strongest audition to date. We then had a dance audition... and that was kind of comical, actually. I haven't had a dance class in years and my retention isn't where it used to be when it comes to dance. After I realized that I wasn't even close to the best dancer in the room I just started smiling like an idiot the whole time. I figured if I can't outshine the other dancers, I can out smile them, lol. At the end of the audition I had absolutely no idea where I stood. Rachel, on the other hand, was asked to grab her tap shoes and was held longer than the rest of us. I was so proud of her. She told me a few days later that she got a callback and has since gotten the job. I didn't get a callback but I'm fine with it. I knew after being late that I had little to no chance of getting the job.

I ended up staying in Pittsburgh until Wednesday morning because I had an audition at the Meadows Casino and Racetrack for a job as a Table Games Dealer. That actually went much better than anticipated.


I walked into the Casino which, incidentally was my first time in any casino, and I was immediately blown away by the sheer size of the place.


I walked up to the security table and they pointed me in the direction of Silks, the section of the casino where the entertainment typically performs. I got my number, filled out some paperwork and walked to the holding area and waited to be called. When I was called I walked up to the table and introduced myself. I had this whole thing speech planned about having grown up on the stage. I said to the proctors "I've been performing since I was three..." and they immediately asked me what I did. When I told them that I sing, they asked me to sing for them and I sang Maybe This Time. I got through the first stanza...

Maybe this time, I'll be lucky.
Maybe this time he'll stay.
Maybe this time... for the first time
Love won't hurry away.

...and they stopped me, handed me a paper and told me to go see Lance in the bowling alley.


I took the math test and made my way down to the bowling alley. I talked to Lance, who I have since found out is the Director of table games at The Meadows, and started to meet my future co-workers. It was a lot of fun. I bowled a game and ate some pizza and nachos and then left around nine to hang out with some of my friends. I was so happy to go to the casino and now I'm entering my third week of training. It's going really well and I know I will love this job.


Since these auditions I have moved to Pittsburgh to live with my cousin. I'm loving this city so much! On any given night, if I try hard enough, I can find something to do. Tonight I had a migraine so I'm a bit wiped out but I have had so much fun in the small amount of time that I've been here. Last night I met a friend of mine from college and we rode the incline up to the top of the city, walked around and took some pictures.


This is a picture of the city from the top of the incline. I honestly think that this the most beautiful sight I've seen in a long time. I absolutely love living here.


This is a picture of Brandon Durica and me at one of the picture points.



This is another picture of Brandon and me at one of the picture points.



On Monday I was hanging out with Ted, Andy and Nick and Andy told me that he could probably get me into the ensemble in Urinetown: the Musical if I was interested. I told him that I was absolutely interested and he emailed the director that night. The next morning I got an email from the director saying "Welcome to our cast!" I was so excited... especially since they're already a month into production. Around 4:00 Wednesday afternoon I got a text from Andy warning me that there was a chance that, depending on how well I dance, I could be asked to understudy one of the smaller leads for opening night because the girl who is playing Little Becky Two-Shoes is graduating from Duquesne that night and cannot make it to the show. I thanked him for the heads up and went to rehearsal that night. About 3/4 of the way through the rehearsal the choreographer told me that I would need to learn her part. She said that when Andy told her how much dance experience I have and when the director saw my resume they decided that I would do the part. So, basically I will be playing Little Becky Two-Shoes on opening night at the McKeesport Little Theatre! Every other night I'll be in the ensemble but I'm still SOO excited to be involved in a musical again... especially one I love as much as I love Urinetown. I'll try to take pictures and keep you guys updated on the progress of the show.


I just signed up the other day for another audition for CLO for the 25th for the production of 'S Wonderful. My audition is slated for 6:00 and now that I've had an audition I feel that I'll be a little bit more prepared for the next one. Also, Ted hooked me up with a voice coach, so I will have two lessons before my audition so that will be great.

Well guys, that's all for this post. I'll keep you updated regularly on the progress of Urinetown!