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23 November 2007

passion versus reason (part 2)

I went to the audition. If I hadn't gone, I would have been sitting at my desk, working on my paper, and wondering what would have happened if I would have gone.

While preparing this morning, I didn't want the guy upstairs to tell me to "SHUT UP!" again, so I grabbed my sheet music and headed up to the rooftop pool in our building. Warming up in a room full of bright morning sunlight, and fabulous acoustics, I felt pretty hopeful about the day ahead.

I hopped on the Metro by 9:30, so that I wouldn't have to wait in line too long at the auditions. Past open calls I have done have had line-ups that stretched city blocks. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the theatre to see only 10 others waiting to sign up. More people arrived eventually, but it was still a very small turnout.

After a while, I made it past the first screening audition, where I sang without accompaniment. The lady told me to loosen up and be sassy. Her instructions made me laugh, and helped me to feel more at ease for the second round. I sang my audition piece for the casting panel, and then "The Sound of Music," upon request (which, thank god, I had been practicing just in case). They seemed to be happy, and handed me some scenes to read over.

I rehearsed the scenes with the first lady who'd seen me. She was incredibly generous with her time, and her direction, which was awesome. After a short while, it was back into the main audition room to present the scenes I had been working on. We ran through them, and it felt so great. They asked me to wait outside the door.

A few minutes later, one of women on the casting panel came and told me they were interested in seeing more of me for the part of Maria. I think I started to hyperventalite at this point.

The catch is, I will have to go through a rigorous audition process that will be the feature of an upcoming reality show called "How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria." Based on the British program of the same name, the show will conduct nation-wide auditions for the lead role of the show. I am truly hesitant to participate in reality tv, but having done well in today's audition, I'm told, may help me through the process.

Now, buzzing with excitement after today, I have to wait a month and a half until those auditions get started. AHHHHH.

6 comments:

Emmett Macfarlane said...

Dal, you're crazy and brave and awesome... and I'm not so sure there's really this tension between your 'passion' and your 'reason' that you describe in your previous post. You choose what you want to do and what gives you fulfilment - for some, that's focusing on one or two things. For others, it's about experiencing a lot of different things. As someone who falls in the former category, it's always been a pleasure to know someone like you!

Anonymous said...

Is this show going to perform in Montreal, or are they doing a touring casting call, or what?

Unknown said...

Yeah, I believe it's a touring casting call, but the show will be playing at the Princess of Wales theatre in Toronto starting September '08.

Erin said...

Congratulations on getting this far, and good luck with the rest of the auditions! That's too cool.

Anonymous said...

Wow, congratulations, Dallas! What exciting news! You'll have to keep us posted so I can watch you on TV...do you get to live in a house with a group of wild and crazy sopranos, all battling for their chance at stardom? Haha - honestly, though, that's amazing! Way to go!

Paige said...

If the CBC is behind it, I found the "Triple Threat" show by them to be quite well done and nothing like Idol or ANTM in terms of cheesy reality programming. Congrats! I think you would be as lovely on screen as on stage!