if i can make it there, i'll make it anywhere

first of all, my trip to NY almost never happened. my dad decided on sunday (the audition was thursday) to bail on me. in a move very familiar to every move he's ever made. so how was i surprised? i guess i had high hopes because this role was just too good to be true. and it got even more good to be true as the week rolled along.

on sunday about the minute i found out my dad bailed i texted mike because i was so frustrated to ask him if there was a chance i could stay at his house in new jersey. this was probably a little bit over the boundaries of our friendship since it was so last minute, but a) what did i have to lose and b) he and Julia are staying at my house later this month so i figured i might as well give it a shot.

he said he would let me know and then he said he would come into the city with me. before he even had a chance to ask his parents, my mom said no. i begged and pleaded all day monday, but went to rehearsal as usual. when i got home, she somehow became more open to the idea and i showed her a list of the routes i would need and the trains and buses i would take. i got back to mike who asked his parents and they said yes on tuesday. i got together all the tickets and info to get to his house at about 8pm on tuesday. i was leaving at 1pm on wednesday. talk about short notice.

so i had my train tickets in hand and made my way over to vienna metro, got to union station and eventually i was on my way to metropark, new jersey! mike apparently made wrong turns the whole way there (and back too haha) but it was soo good to see him! i probably would have made this trip just to hang out with mike swan, but the best part was yet to come.

who is this guy?!

oh wait, it's mike swan.

we went to his best friend's girlfriend's grad party, which was cool. i got to meet a bunch of people who probably have forgotten my name by now and got to make smores. :)

at the lovely hour of 5am I miraculously woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing since i forgot to turn it off of vibrate, even though i had set an alarm. and at about 6ish we hit the road for wawa (which i had never been to) and the somerville NJ transit station! i was starting to get nervous since i didn't know what to expect. this always happens to me when i audition. i get to a point where i almost don't want to go anymore, but then i get over it because i never want to regret not trying. and i start to get a little excited.

"welcome to shit, new jersey" said mike as we pulled into the newark station and then we got on the penn station train. we got to the city around 8am. and made our way uptown to the actor's equity association audition center.

i thought everyone else waiting in the member lounge (a room with lots of bulletin boards, fliers and really hard wooden benches) was equity and i was probably the only one who would be sitting there waiting forever. nope. the monitor came out and said that the auditions for the other group that day were very full of equity people and everyone else who was waiting might not be seen. then he said one of the most beautiful things i had ever heard. there was a very low turnout for Fat Camp and they were very likely to audition non-equity people. i had been just sitting there for half an hour and finally realized i needed to go hunting for a sign up sheet. DUH. about 5 minutes after i signed up, the Fat Camp monitor came out and called in all 13 of us girls who were not equity. three more girls came later. the audition was supposed to start at 9 and here we were already being called at 9:05!!! we walked into a bigger, nicer waiting room. the bathroom said "dolls" on it. i basically love this place. michael minarik said in one of his emails to me that he waited 9 hours to get into his first equity audition. i waited half an hour. too unreal.

by 9:15 we were told (well really more i overheard the monitor telling someone) that only 21 girls had shown up for the equity call. plus 16 non equity. holy crap. my chances are actually pretty ok. then i see the girls that showed up. the great thing about Fat Camp auditions were that it wasn't a thousand people who look like me going up for the same one role i am. nope, it was two separate ensembles they were casting. and it was very very easy to tell who was up for what. i mean, the title gives it away, right? so anyway, out of girls auditioning to be campers, there were only about maybe 12 of us. HOLY CRAP if they have an ensemble of 5 i have almost a 50% chance of getting the part. If it's an ensemble of 4 i have a 30% chance. i thought i would have about a...hmm let's think...ZERO percent chance.

my head was spinning at this point. i just hoped i wouldn't choke by the time i went in. i was really worried that i was so much younger than everyone and less experienced and probably not as good. the monitor told us that michael cassara, the casting director, was the only one in the room besides the pianist. i was a little disappointed that michael minarik wasn't there since he's the one i knew. just when i was thinking, well there goes that, guess who shows up just in time to only hear the non equity girls at the end of the line! you guessed it! i wanted to go say hi and introduce myself again as the girl he's talked to on the phone and over email but he went into the audition room and i couldn't lose my place in line. (i probably could have though, only 3 girls were behind me).

anyway, i eventually went in, and i don't think i could have done any better. like honestly, i felt more comfortable in front of a renowned broadway casting director and the producer of the show, who is a broadway actor (ok, ok, i had been talking to him on email and on the phone so it wasn't like a totally unfamiliar person) than i am in front of JMU directors. how silly is that? maybe because i knew this was a long shot and it would suck a lot less if i don't get this role as opposed to if i don't get a JMU role, where i am sometimes made to feel like i should choose a new major when i'm not called back.

mike could apparently hear me through the door on the other side of room (it backed up to the lounge) and we later commented on how unbelievably bad some of these people were. first of all, i heard at least 2 equity people do "i'm walking on sunshine" and the second one was actually really terrible. first of all, she was late to the audition and only got a good spot because she was equity, she looked like a hot mess and went off key on the "woah, oh" part of the song.

then there were the girls who did the big belt rock numbers- they had what i like to call "good day" notes. notes that you can hit; you've hit them before, but you are like hoping and praying the whole time that you're going to hit it. and let me tell you, audition nerves=not a good day for them...

i stuck with "i don't know how to love him" from jesus christ superstar. it is a song i know sounds good in my voice. it goes up to a C above middle C belting, which is right where i'm comfortable. it would take some major choking for me to mess up that song. i always try to pick songs that are at least one or two notes lower than my highest note and at least one or two notes higher than the lowest note in my range.

as i walked out the door thinking michael minarik didn't recognize my name, i hear him go, "wait wait come back! did you go to my high school?" and so i was like "yeah im the one that's been emailing you," and he just was like "omg im sorry i didnt recognize your name, how are you, where are you staying, how was your trip?, etc." and he asked me about JMU too since he went there as well. he told me he was glad he had looked at my resume and seen oakton and jmu all over the place before i was gone. he was really nice. and we chatted about mr bromley and stuff and it was really nice of them to give me the extra time. i could see on everyone's face as i left the room that they were like "oh maybe this 19 year old is not a loser thinking she can just come audition for broadway..."

so we were done and auditioned and the heels were removed by 11am. mike goes, "i don't know why but i was happy just to sit there for 6 hours! i'm sorry i didn't plan anything for us to do afterwards."

my bus was scheduled to come at 4:30. we decided to walk to central park and got some really good pizza (reason #129 why i love the city) and cannoli and a cheesecake (which was mike's but i stole a bite).

love in a tube.

then we walked the rest of the way to central park and explored not even a quarter of it because it's crazy huge. we did, however, lie in the grass for a while, walk past a company softball game and rode the carousel. another reason why i love new york- virginia summers suck. it was 75 degrees outside on the first day of july.

my view while laying in central park. this would be a picture of us on the carousel, but mike erased it.

we also saw one of the pianos that just hang around new york as part of Sing for Hope. i almost pulled out my song book and asked someone to play something while i sang but i figured that was kind of obnoxious. i should have though, because they are only going to be there until this monday. then we got our picture taken by the parkography guy (click the link to see our picture) as we threw coins into the fountain behind us. mike forgot to wish, and i wished for the part, of course. we'll pretend mike wished for that, too.

then we took the subway back to penn station. at 4 i hopped onto the DC2NY bus. USE THEM. they were awesome. they had huge-for-a-bus TVs, had 2 movie options and unlike bolt bus, were not overcrowded, late or promised internet that was bad. they seem a little sketchy because their phone answering machine sounds like a home phone answering message, and the lady called me back about changing to an earlier bus while i was on the scheduled bus. (i originally tried to see if i could get an earlier bus so i could make it back for rehearsal since i had no other plans) DC2NY was easy, early, almost everyone had a double seat to themselves and the internet connection was awesome. the only thing i didn't like was that the people on the bus voted on watching 2012 which i purposely did not go see in theatres, so i took a nap instead. when all was said and done, i got home at about 10:45pm. it was a long and crazy day and now everyone is asking me when im going to know, which i dont know when that will be.

my biggest problem at this point is that in explaining to my mom what will happen if i did actually get the part, my hopes are getting a little too high for my own good, because she wants to know even two or three steps ahead of me getting the job. that combined with the fact that she already asked my uncle if i could live with them if i get the part and he said yes.

so we'll see what happens.

p.s. happy fourth of july weekend everyone!

p.p.s. i rode the intimidator at king's dominion on tuesday and started to black out. i think i am coming a long way in terms of frivolity. :)