So, some of you might not know this, because apparently you live under rocks
No, I'm kidding. But this is the post where I talk about my auditions, which I went to on Friday and Saturday!
I had my University of Michigan audition Friday, which involved driving to Ann Arbor through a really bad snowstorm Thursday night.
It was not fun, but we made it to the hotel in one piece and then totally crashed. I had to be at the center for the arts at the college at 9 AM Friday, and proceeded to have one of the most stressful and jam-packed days of my life...until the next day.
We had a meeting with some current Musical Theatre students and the head of the department (who looked like a Hobbit...
) and then we went to our dance call at 10:30. No comment on that, because I'm an awful dancer at the best of times and I SUCK at ballet. It took about an hour to do the whole dance audition and we did a ballet routine and a "classic" Broadway dance routine. The ballet instructor was very studious and strict and moved very fast through the whole routine--I took to calling her Madame Giry in my head!
I ate lunch with my mom after the dance audition--sushi in the student Union. I wasn't looking for character lookalikes, but had I not been too nervous to scope them out, I would have noticed a Yukito, a Yumi, a purple-haired Erin, and a Golden Hunt! ^_^ I love people-watching, but I couldn't do it extensively because i was too scared and nervous. A lot of times over the weekend I felt like an outsider among the other musical theatre auditionees--the majority of them seemed much more talented and knowledgeable about MT and auditions than I was. I met a few really nice people, though. As a whole, they were amazing but intimidating and a LOT of these kids were CRAZY MT kids that go to performing arts high schools from all over the country. The farthest away was from Vancouver, and she actually attended the exact same two auditions that I did over the course of the weekend--it was a nice surprise seeing her the next day in Ohio! It was really scary and I felt like such a theatre newbie, but i impressed them with the fact that I've been onstage and done tech, lights, stage managing, etc.
Everyone IN the programs were really nice, though. Following lunch was a piano placement test which I bombed because I don't play piano, but that's okay because it doesn't affect the outcome of my audition, just placement in piano classes if they do accept me into the program. More waiting followed (NERVE-WRACKING TO THE EXTREME!) and then my acting audition was at 1:30. I did Sally's "coathanger monologue" from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Singing was at 3, and then we were on the road. I felt I did very well but I have no idea whether I'll get into the program, since they only accept 20 students and there are a lot of other factors they consider.
We rolled into the second college, Baldwin-Wallace, at around 6 Friday night, checked into our hotel, went out to dinner, came back to the hotel to chill and watch reruns of Bones that were on, and crashed again. I was exhausted from getting very little sleep the night before, dancing for an hour, and walking all over a college campus...so we crashed again! ^_^
The schedule of auditions at B-W was pretty much the opposite than it was at U of M--I had singing first. My audition was at 10 and they combined the singing and the acting so I only had one 'audition' to go to. We were assigned a student to be our guide for the day to take us to warm up and then into the audition room. The rest of the day was super casual until lunch, we basically had a round-table type discussion/Q&A with two current B-W MT seniors and whichever underclassmen in the program were around at the time (they were in and out of the room a lot but they were all awesome and super nice) Lunch was at around 12, and at one, WE SAT IN ON A MASTER CLASS WHERE A BROADWAY CASTING DIRECTOR LISTENED TO THE STUDENTS PERFORM AND GAVE THEM FEEDBACK. It was incredible. Simply incredible. Then, after 3 hours of Master Class, which they have over 10 times a year with different casting directors, agents, and other people in the industry, we had another hour-long dance audition--ballet and a modern routine to Lady Gaga--and mom and I did the 5-hour drive home.
Do I think I have a shot at either of these programs? Who knows. But I did feel good about the auditions...and now the waiting begins.
EDIT: I generally don't have one set band or singer for character muse. My rule of thumb is that if I get a particular song randomly stuck in my head while I'm posting or thinking about a post, that's a sign from the character to listen to that song to get muse. And it always works. ^_^ I have a few songs that always bring muse, like "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane and "Time Lapse Lifeline" by Maria Taylor. I don't know why they work, but they do. Cassie muse usually comes with songs by Sara Bareilles (like for Clarence/Cassie, my go-to song was "Love on the Rocks"), Ingrid Michaelson, Laura Jansen, Lady Gaga (YES, CASSIE'S A FAN. SHUT UP), anything from Glee, which is weird because Cassie claims to hate Glee, and others that I can't remember. (EDIT: Remembered the last one, it's Taylor Swift! Duh!) For Shelby, it's anime music, Glee, anything that's ever been one One Tree Hill, Mika, Michelle Branch (NOSTALGIA THERE) and Maria Taylor...Vikram perks up with any song from Broadway, and "Mambo #5". Just ask Chelly about that one.
As for new musicals, I haven't really been listening to anything super new...but I would recommend The Light in the Piazza to anyone who hasn't heard that musical yet, because I think it's the best thing to hit the B'way stage in years and Spamalot robbed it of the Tony that LITP deserved. I also recommend all of the songs/artists listed above.
What I don't know, is what breed it is. Help meee~ xD
-Mascii(:
It was not fun, but we made it to the hotel in one piece and then totally crashed. I had to be at the center for the arts at the college at 9 AM Friday, and proceeded to have one of the most stressful and jam-packed days of my life...until the next day. 
) and then we went to our dance call at 10:30. No comment on that, because I'm an awful dancer at the best of times and I SUCK at ballet. It took about an hour to do the whole dance audition and we did a ballet routine and a "classic" Broadway dance routine. The ballet instructor was very studious and strict and moved very fast through the whole routine--I took to calling her Madame Giry in my head! 