Audition Anxiety

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 7:05pm

what was your worst audition experience? best?

[DefyGravity23]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 7:10pm

So many worsts. Not a whole lot of bests. At our school they almost always pick songs for us to sing that have a low alto range (we don't get to choose our own songs to sing...grrrr). I'm a soprano one so I have a tough time with it... still some have ended up going better than I expected. For best, I always get extremely nervous for auditions, but one time I only got slightly nervous and actually had a lot of fun during the audition (it was for a play, not a musical) so I guess that would be the best...

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 7:12pm

Well, my audition for Seussical was really good...and I got a Who.

[GirlforTartaglia]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 7:18pm

I sang "Purpose" from Q for my Seussical audition and I got Sour Kangaroo :)..so that was a great audition..my callback for it was AWFUL though, but I guess they liked my first audition enough :)

[Adoannie925]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 8:03pm

I auditioned for SUNY Purchase and I freaked out before my audition because I didn't sleep the night before and felt sick to my stomach, so I started vomiting and couldn't hold any food down. I felt feverish, too. When I got to the audition, I wasn't very coherent and I felt horrible and we had to fill this form out about what we would be performing and I got so nervous that I forgot how to spell the characters names, who the authors were, etc., and I looked like an idiot, but I knew the plays inside and out. I did my monologues for them, Squeaky Fromme from "Assassins" and Sonya from "Uncle Vanya." The monologues didn't go too well, but they weren't horrible considering the conditions, and then I was supposed to sing 16 bars of a song, acapella and after I finish my monologues I'm sitting there with a look of "what now?" and the head of the department says "Sing!!" in a very comanding tone, and I got so nervous because I have horrible confidence when singing, but I was so nervous before that I was shaking and forgot to sing. After that, the man asked me if I was nervous and why I was nervous. I should have answered "because i want to go to your school so badly," but i reverted into my shy self and just shrugged and said "i know i shouldn't be, but i just am," and that was it. I didn't get in, but I don't blame them after seeing my audition.

[Amneris]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 10:19pm

just remember , whether it be High School , Community Theater or Professional auditions.. you don't need them as much as THEY NEED YOU. They WANT you to do well. These people are rooting for you behind the table. There is no reason to be nervous because in the end , they are just um.. people... Just think of an audition as a voice lesson.. or singing for fun. Forget about the outcome even though you want the job or the college so badly because if you think , it WILL mess you up. I learned a lot early on in middle school / high school.. literally, I was SO obsessed with RENT @ 13 & 14 at my community and HS auditions I'd pretend my drama teacher / director was Bernard Telsey... and that he was auditioning me for Maureen.. then years later, when I actually auditioned for Bernard Telsey for Maureen lol I was on cloud 9 to be sickly nervous..just total excitement.

[feinstein9]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 11:26pm

you auditioned for maureen? tell us the stooory, amneris! i didn't know this. btw your icon rules. i <3 mercedes and her portrail of bella! great movie.

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 1:02am

I ALWAYS get TERRIBLE audition anxiety, so much show that unless I think I'm going to be comfortable with the place it's taking place I don't bother anymore. The worse for me was probably college auditions, just because so much is riding on them. I only had three I had to audition for, and only two were very competitive. I auditioned my junior or senior year at SUNY Purchase for acting, but I wasn't prepared at that point and forgot my monologues pretty much entirely after a certain point. I was shaking and almost crying it was so bad. I was almost not going to audition but I did anyway.

My other audition was at Emerson my first year in college (I wanted to transfer) I was prepared this time, but still as I went to the building and felt the nerves rise up that I was going to bomb. I came with a monologue from the Woolgatherer (which I since learned is a no-no, but I was attached to it) and was prepared to sing "Till There Was You" from The Music Man. The gentleman auditioning me seemed nice enough, but I froze. I sang without any focus or really any acting at all. My throat was closed, by vibrato rapid and stiflied. I tried not to cringe at my own singing, but I couldn't stop, even through pre-audition breathing exercises what was happening to me. Then came the monologue. Boy...not too hot. All I had prepared went out the window. Then I basically word-vomited my interview and that was the end of that. I knew I wasn't getting in. I got into the school but not the department.

On the other hand, I also auditioned at SUNY New Paltz for their much less competitive musical theater program. It seemed like a very lax audition, and while I can't say I did my best ever, my singing went well and my acting, well it wasn't great but it could have been worse. I was nervous for this one, but not nearly as much as I had been, both because of the atmopshere and because it was less competitive. I ended up hearing a week later that I got in. I didn't end up going, but it was nice to get in to something for musical theater.

[Amneris]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:11am

I realize you are nervous for your college auditions..trust me, I was VERY nervous weeks before building up to the date but, once I got to the colleges , I refused to let my nerves take over. You have to sort of drown out the competition... because once you get to NYC and open calls if you don't do it early on, you will never be able to deal with the obnoxious bitches who attend the calls here.

Feinstein thanks about my icon!!!! I ADORE Mercedes.. oh my gosh lol she is to me what Idina Menzel is to everyone else here accept, I admire her without the "candles under the poster" hehe jk. My audition story is no big deal lol... I went to an open call for FAME, didn't get kept.. walked across the hall to an EPA for rent and asked if they'd see me, she said yes..went in and sang and BT called me back for a maureen replacement 6 months later. And I had to go over there and get "take me or leave me" from them and sing that. It was a lot of fun. Nothing else came of it but, my point is to everyone here.. just have fun and anything can happen for the better. It's normal to be nervous but, don't let it take over you.. kick da nerves in da booty! If you walk in to the audition place and just be all personality , it will make things easier.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:13am

My worst was when I was in high school and auditioned for Into the Woods. I didn't think that my song went very well, but then the director had everyone sing a song from the show, except for me. I have rarely been so embarrassed.
The best was in college, I was auditioning for Pirates of Penzance and on the way to the audition I was talking to my sister about how I always get nervous when I'm auditioning and can't get the breath support that I need. She suggested that I let her breath for me when I sang. And, I know it sounds cheezy but, it worked!

[jynni]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:25am

I've never had a bad audition - until last month. I don't really get nervous and never have a problem with the vocal part (dance auditions are another thing as I don't always pick up steps very quickly).

I was singing "Unusual Way" from Nine and really hadn't considered whether or not the accompaniest would be able to play it. I should have known the four sharps to be a red flag.

We started out okay and about four measures in the piano stops - then starts (but with the wrong notes) then stops again. I would think that if she couldn't play it, she could have given me the melody with some chords, but no dice there. The just kinda randomly threw out some notes here and there. It was awful - my pitch ended going all over the place (and on that song you really need it during the bridge). It seemed like and eternity before someone finally said "thank you" so I could leave. Needless to say I didn't get cast.

[mikewood]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:46am

I'm big into the whole method thing while I'm acting at least physically . .. I can let it go mentally pretty easily but physically I hold onto some of my baseline characteristics. Anyway, in college once, I was just finishing up laying Joe in "The Shadow Box" and was auditioning for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and couldn't lose the dying middle aged man character i was playing. It was embarassingly bad.

Also, when I returned to acting after taking an extended break, my first couple of auditions were awful... reaching its nadir when I couldn't get in an large cast ensemble piece like "Our Town."

Another audition frustration for me is being of a certain weight and not being the tallest man, I don't always get considered for leading man roles. It deflates you, especially after a kick-butt audition.

[Corine2]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 10:39am

Look at the casting director and think of him in his underwear.

[thecarf]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 11:31am

Worst auditions...there were so many.
Best audition: Avenue Q audition. I went to a Chorus call/EPA and changed my song choice very last minute. Walked in, had fun and got called back about 5 or 6 times after that, including a final callback with the whole gang (producers, writers etc). Everyone was so very nice that it made the atmosphere pleasant and made the work very easy. Something I'll never forget. I learned so much too...

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 3:54pm

at the Q callback did u audition with or meet any of the people that did make the show?

[MagicToDo82]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 3:55pm

I fell on my face while walking up to the stage at an audition for Animal Crackers. But since it was a slapstick musical, and i bounced up really quickly and said 'I'm okay!' the director loved it.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 4:00pm

Two worsts: Actually forgetting the name of the song I was going to sing. I just told the guy at the piano to start playing and I'll remember it. Well, I didn't!!! I will say the casting directors were quite understanding and did everything in their control to try to get me to relax.

2nd: Auditioning for Lun Tha for a touring company of "The King & I". I was really off key (I knew it, and couldn't correct the problem) and they told me to "PLEASE STOP SINGING". Needless to say, I was mortified.

Best: Being called in for the umteenth time for "Les Miz", but at this time I had already sent my check in to cooking school. Since my mind was made up to pursue another career, there was nothing at stake anymore. I was not the least bit nervous and I will say it was probably the best audition I had ever given.

Updated On: 4/18/05 at 04:00 PM

[thecarf]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 4:26pm

Theatreboy-

I haven't met anyone who has made the show at a call back or otherwise. I barely saw anyone else there at any of the call backs except for one or two other guys. Usually, none of us were up for the same parts either. Is this what you're asking? Or are you asking more about meeting Rick Lyon or Peter Linz?