I went to the Phantom of the Opera Audition for the Las Vegas show on Wednesday. The waiting room was as big as my apartment and filled to the max, I nearly had a panic attack…

I showed my equity card and went to sit down in my own small corner, in my own small imaginary chair, ha ha I wish there were chairs.
Of course as is my luck I get this crazy man in a green bell bottom suit, gold medallions and a yellow bow tie singing ‘I found like on a two way street’ in the corner next to me and Japanamation girl that sits down next to me dressed in her pig tails with her shorty small ruffle skirt and thigh highs asking me in broken English what equity is.

I am like; where do these people hear about these things?
Of course Japanamation girl could have been amazing for all I know.

So I only had to wait about an hour which was all I could take of people warming up, talking about head shots, agents, auditions, who got what, who can’t sing and do I look stout in this?
It’s really a whole other world that I forget even exists until I bravely step into it again. The room was truly like one of those boxes that you open and hear sound and then close it and the song goes away.
So I go in and sing my song and its quite hard to sing opera while listening to the music of the hip hop dance audition next door.
Though listening to some of the opera songs from outside the room with the hip hop beats underneath sounded very cool and 5th element like. A girl I met said she had a friend that got into Legally blonde by singing an opera version of ‘I touch myself’. Now that is cool!
So I sang my song and the two auditioners were really nice and they questioned where the song was from and I told them it was from a musical called ‘Feather top’ that didn’t really make it. They questioned me if I knew what it was about and we got to talking and I told them it was a musical that didn’t really make it. Then we were laughing later and I told them that I probably shouldn’t have said that it didn’t really make it because what if one of them wrote it and they laughed. They questioned who it was by and I told them it was by Skip Kennon and the piano player was like and now I want to introduce you to Skip Kennon and pointed to one of the casting directors…
…I laughed, I would have been mortified if it was him.
Then they questioned how long I had my hair blonde and I told them it came about from the show shear genius when I was a hair model and it was rainbow day and my hair turned a rainbow bright, pink, purple, and blonde, or a matchstick as Kim Vo said. And out of that came blonde. I guess they were referring to why my head shots not being blonde but I should have questioned them which they preferred and I should have said ‘well if I get this job I can afford new head shots’. Ha ha. I should have given them a demo also. I should have done alot of things that I didn’t…
But then I started telling them about how my first grade students dyed their hair with kool aide to look like Mrs. LaGreen and they laughed saying the parents must have been thrilled about that.

This was a required call so they were not casting as with the economy no one is leaving the show and you know its bad when the person ahead of you was in the national tour of Miss Saigon and the girl behind you was in Into the Woods on broadway. But I was perfectly prepared to come home and write on my blog…
…how auditions are like being an alcoholic, in that you know its bad but you keep going back for more but in all actuality it was a really positive experience.

I want to write them a thank you note and say thank you for treating us like people and not like numbers or zombies. I reckon the mistake I always make is thinking they must be in a rush because there are so many people waiting. That I should go in, do my thing and get gone, but I need to remember that if they are taking the time to talk to me I should stay as long as they want me to.
I also make the mistake of thinking they are not real people and I forget to be a real person back to them.
This time after being away from the whole auditioning scene for a while it was simpler to be myself so that was growth. You have to like growth.