BWW Blog: A Summer in Ohio (or Other Places)

Hello again everyone and welcome back to my weekly blog with BroadwayWorld! This past week has been full of school, outside activities, as well as preparing for the upcoming professional auditions many in my program are taking part in. So, with this conference at the forefront of everyone's minds, I thought I would detail a little bit about how I am personally preparing to audition for a ton of summer stock companies, and how I'm balancing trying to be a professional while knowing that being a student has to always come first.

Next week starts the week I've been preparing for since September. I'm not kidding. I've literally spent months preparing for, quite literally, a 90-second time slot. If that's not terrifying I don't know what is. The Southeastern Theatre Conference, or SETC, is basically a nationwide casting call for a plethora of different opportunities throughout the United States. While some theaters and companies are casting for year-round employment, the reason I'm going is specifically for summer stock. You see, with the University of Central's BFA Musical Theatre program, we need to have an internship credit to graduate. Which basically means that we need to get paid performing work before we head out into the real world. While I have been lucky enough to have had professional theatre work in the past (my first being this past holiday season!), those credits did not count for various reasons. So here we are! But I should say that I'm not doing this just for my internship credit fulfillment. I'm genuinely excited about the possibility of spending a summer in Ohio. Or another state. Whoever wants me, really.

To be able to qualify for the auditions, I had to go through two different prescreening processes to even be allowed to sign up. The first was through my school itself in which we selected a package we wanted to show (I chose do both acting and singing and so I had 90 seconds to complete both). Because it is an open call style and you can't really pick materials to fit a specific role, you generally choose what you think best suits you and pray for the best. I was able to pass through these prescreens and then it was time to sign up for the Florida Theatre Conference, or FTC, to do another prescreen. But this one is in front of professionals in the industry.

In mid-November, I headed up to Gainesville at 5 in the morning (I wish I were kidding) to participate in this round of qualifiers for SETC. I spent the morning hanging out with other friends who were there, putting on my makeup in a bathroom, and warming up with a British voice coaching Youtube video in the hallway with a friend. Then it was my turn to go in. The room is set up with three judges in the center at a table, a small (and squeaky) stage in the front, and a row of chairs positioned in an L-shape for the other performers in the group. Oh yeah, did I mention you're not only performing for judges but also for 25 of the other people auditioning? Yes, mildly terrifying. I was about seventh in line, performed my pieces, sat back down, and then I was free to head back home where I had a performance of The Music Man later that evening. I played the waiting game for a bit, but found out within a few days that my scores were high enough for me to qualify to finally move on to the actual audition. And that audition is next week. I can't believe how quickly time has flown!

I will be driving all the way to Mobile, Alabama (which is surprisingly the location of the first ever Mardi Gras celebration, who knew?!) with a group of friends. The SETC auditions are a bit complicated to describe, but basically you are assigned a number, that number has a specific time slot/group on a specific day. You perform at that slot and hear back about callbacks from different companies almost directly after you are done performing. You spend the rest of the day/evening/night (I've heard they go until after 1am sometimes, please send help) attending callbacks, going to the dance call, and overall hoping that you don't get lost in the meantime.

I'm definitely super excited for this opportunity and I do feel confident in my abilities to hopefully be able to book something fun this summer, but I am also doing as much as I can to prepare myself. I recently (*cough* this morning *cough*) switched my monologue from dramatic to comedic and have started organizing my rep book with all of the pieces I've been working on to have prepared if need be. I've gotten new headshots taken, updated and redesigned my resume, created, designed, and published my new website, made business cards, got 'thank you' cards, bought my audition dress, found the shoes, etc.

Now all there is left to do is just get everything that I can in order, drink Emergen-C like it's my job (because technically it is, I suppose), and hope with all my heart that everything will work out. But if it doesn't? What if I don't even get any callbacks from this thing? What if it was all a waste? Well, for one, nothing is a waste. Even if the worst possible outcome occurs, I am a full believer in any experience being a good one because it can make you better in the long run. So, all I can do is be as fully prepared as possible and let the universe, or God, or whatever thing you believe in take hold to do the rest.

Thank you all for reading this week's entry and I look forward to updating you all next week on more of the weekly happenings as a BFA Musical Theatre student!

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