BWW Student Blog: Sydney Gross- Auditions

"Hey there Delilah, what's it like in New York City..." Lori's alarm clock blared as she groggily went to hit the snooze button. She knew she could not let that button be hit one more time, it was her opening night on Broadway. Everyday was the same for her. Get up, go to school, go to rehearsal, get some sort of fast food, go home, do homework, and finally go to sleep. It was an endless cycle that probably is not very healthy. Anybody would think that having an opening night on Broadway would be fun and exciting, but for Lori, there was so many things going on in her head. Lori was an average teenager, stressing over grades, popularity, and boys. That was until she heard on the radio that Hamilton, the smash hit musical that had been breaking ticket number records since it opened, was having an open casting audition in New York City for the new Elizabeth Schuyler. Lori had been acting her entire life in community theatres and schools and such. Her dream was to eventually make it to Broadway but she never thought that this opportunity would come so early in life. She sat up in bed and looked at her watch.

*Flashback*

"Mr. Myers, as my drama teacher I just want to let you know, I will not be in school tomorrow because I am going up to Chelsea and Company in the city to audition for Hamilton." Mr. Myers smirked and released a slight giggle. He responded with, "Ha, okay.. Let me know how that goes Lori." Lori was dejected. She believed that her drama teacher, the person that teaches her everyday about the art that she loves so much would encourage her to fulfil her dream, instead he just laughed at her. He mocked her for her ambition.

*End of flashback*

As she looked at her watch it said it was nine AM. This means she had exactly eleven hours until the curtain rose on her opening night. She had many things she needed to get done beforehand. She had to get some breakfast with her best friend Derek, pick up her dress for the party after the show, as well as pick up the gifts that she had ordered for the rest of her cast members. She was meeting her friend Derek at a juice bar where they would chat and catch up on all the gossip going on in eachother's lives. The two of them finally met up and they ordered some juice as well as some muffins and fruit. "Lori, this is so exciting, I am so proud of you. How do you feel?" Lori replied, "Honestly, I'm really nervous, I do not know if I am going to be able to do this... Am I good enough for all of this?" "Lori, you got the part, you have been in rehearsal for weeks, and you are one of the most talented people I have ever met, of course you will kill it." That is why Lori loved her best friend Derek, she did not always have friends like that. She looks at her watch to see how long she has until she needs to pick up her dress.

*Flashback*

At the local community theatre, Lori was friends with many people. It was the one place where she actually had a large group of friends and felt appreciated, at least she thought. One day during rehearsal Lori went to go to the bathroom and in the lobby she could hear some of her other cast members talking. It seemed as if they were having a normal conversation during a break between scenes. Through a crack in the door Lori heard her friends discussing a personal topic. "I am so tired of Lori getting the big parts all the time." Another person chimed in by saying, "How do you think Lori gets all her parts? She is a favorite and her dad is the director." It seemed as though some of Lori's friends were not all that they seem to be.

*End of Flashback*

When she looked at the watch she realized she had about fifteen minutes to get her dress. She gave a hug to Derek, got in a cab, and went straight to the dress shop. She had no idea what to wear. What does one wear to an event like that? Lori had no experience with a high school teenager party, let alone an opening night Broadway party. She got out of her taxi and walked in, ready to see herself in a dress that the entire Broadway community was going to see her in tonight. She was no longer going to be just another face in the halls of hell known as high school. She would not just be the theatre nerd who stayed after school to paint sets and could not do anything on the weekends because she was in a show that nobody had heard of before. Her name was going to be known. All of these thoughts rushed through her head as she put on her dress for the final fitting and as she looked at herself she saw someone that she had never seen before. She looked up at the clock on the wall to see how much longer she had.

*Flashback*

There was auditions for The Princess and the Frog at school. That would have been Lori's first show she was in. Except, the audition for that show did not play out the way that Lori had intended. The audition took place at her elementary school and Lori was so excited. She had never done anything like that before and thought maybe this would be something that she would be good at. She went into the auditions and was nervous because everybody else was auditioning with songs such as "Happy Birthday" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Lori had another plan. When Lori's name was called she went up there, stated her name and that she would be auditioning for the princess role and sang "Fabulous" from the movie High School Musical 2, with choreography. It was unlike anything else that the other children were doing. She felt special and as if she was shining like a star. That was the moment she knew that she wanted to perform and take up a career in acting. After she had done her routine the director pulled her down from the stage and brought her to the corner. He said, "Honey, I am sorry but you just do not look like a princess. Maybe you could be a tree or a woodland creature." Lori walked out of that audition and cried the rest of the day. She told herself "one day I will be the princess."

*End of Flashback*

Looking at herself in her dress, in the reflection of the mirror, she finally was the princess that she wanted to be ever since she was six years old. She got her dress neatly bagged, put it over her arm, got in the taxi, and went to Schmackary's bakery to get the cookies that she ordered for the rest of the cast. As time drew nearer she was quickly realizing that it was almost time. After she had picked up the box of cookies, her taxi pulled up to the theatre. Her name was on the marque and that was the moment. That was when she realized that tonight was the night. She was having her opening night on Broadway. To her walk from the stage door to her dressing room, all the visions that she had throughout the day all rushed in. The disappointment, the anger, the regret, the sadness all piled on top of each other. This was it. She broke down and started crying. After a couple minutes of letting it all out she got her makeup on, got in costume, and once again looked at herself in the mirror. She was the character. It could be from the heap of emotion or from staring at the mirror for far too long, her reflection in the mirror turned into the actual Elizabeth Schuyler. She looked at Lori and said, "My whole life people only looked at me as Alexander Hamilton's wife. They believed that I was a trophy that knew nothing. People will try to knock you down your whole life. They will tell you that you are not worth it. But guess what. You are worth it. You got here, you are telling my story for the rest of the world. Thank you for that. These people who brought you down are just jealous that they are not where you are in your life. You are going to do amazing in the show tonight. I know you are worth it, you know you are worth it. Now show all of those people out there that you are worth it." The vision of Elizabeth slowly faded away. Lori did not know how that had happened, but that was exactly what she needed. The clock in her dressing room chimed. That was her call for five minutes before the show started. As she looked at this clock, there was no terrible daydreams or flashbacks. They subsided because she was above that now. She did not need to be reminded of the bad memories anymore because she knew she was just going to make amazing memories from the time she got on that stage until the end of time.