The Big '?'

Right so let’s dive in. The last two weeks have been majorly stressful. I think it will continue along in this vein for another 3 weeks at least. Let’s hope it calms down after that. So, showcase. Duh duh duh (scary movie sound effects). Well this was the big event. They have been leading up to this for months, saying that showcase is possibly the most important performance of the year. All sorts of fun encouraging things like that and 'you really want to have an agent by the end of the year, and showcase is the way to do that'. So the pressure was on. Music and scene finally chosen and rehearsed. The outfit chosen, and let me tell you that took a long time. Everything is blocked, teched and ready to go. Everyone is stressed and cranky. And we finally hit showcase week. We had three performances. Two on Wednesday and one on Thursday. I think they went pretty well. I felt pretty good about my performances but not phenomenal. I second guessed myself a bit, both because of the complications when choosing my song, and from the number of people who were directing. It was a case of too many cooks, especially towards the end. I think we worked on our scenes with 5 different coaches, and our songs with just about as many. So, needless to say not all of them are going to agree on what works. And well, it got a bit confusing! Especially when, as we got closer to the performance, we had more and more feedback and less and less time to actually work on the pieces. This is only natural, as the performance itself gets closer the director has to focus on the technical side of everything and rely on the work that has already been done. It was just tough with so many new voices chiming at the last second to assimilate and apply everything. Well it is over. I was content with my performance, and certainly pleased about the fantastic review I got in the stage two days later. I am less pleased about the fact that only 12 agents came to the showcase (after we collectively invited a couple hundred). I am a little bit disappointed that no one took any of my headshots or resumes. I can’t let this get my down though. Our showcase was held a good two months before most of those by other programs. I think this contributed to the low turnout. Also it is possible that those who did come are planning on waiting to see the other showcases before making any decisions. Well whatever the cause I haven’t heard from anyone yet, so its on to bigger and better ways of getting attention! Last week was filled with frantic researching. Our group research projects were due yesterday, and what with the showcase and all, no one really did any work on the projects until last Monday. So that was a fun thing. Scrambling to finish our project, which only vaguely resembled the one that we started out with while also trying to find ways to make it entertaining was a less than ideal task. I am not going to lie, this was my least favorite thing all year. I don’t want to think about it anymore, so I am going to move on to more interesting things. Next up on our class agenda are three sets of auditions. In order they are the Sondheim Prize, Sunday in the Park with George and our audition exam. Sondheim is next Monday, George the following, and I think the exam is the week after. Something like that. So, lots of stuff to work on. They finally announced who was getting called for which part for George. This has been a source of much debate since we have come back from Christmas. So it is nice to finally know. I really am ready to just be done with the wondering and get the auditions over with. They have drawn out the suspense more than long enough. Right so I was called in for several things, which is nice. I am going to get to audition for Dot which I was really hoping would be the case. I am also called for the Celeste one and two, Yvonne, Louise, Frieda and Harriet. So, lots of different things. Overall I am pleased with their decisions. What I am not so happy about is the fact that our course leaders cannot seem to proofread before they send documents to the entire class. So here's what happened. A few weeks ago, while we were still deciding what everyone was performing in the showcase, all of the students were sent what was supposed to be a schedule for the next day. What they sent was, yes the schedule, but it had all of their candid notes about the pieces that all of us were working on. This was a document that was obviously not meant to be seen by any of the students (We were immediately sent another e-mailing saying 'Important: don’t read that document!' so naturally everyone then went and read it). There were things on there like 'really amateur, he should try acting' and 'shrill' and 'boring'. Now it’s one thing that they made the notes, that doesn’t really bother me. It’s the fact that they sent it to everyone! That is sort of a big boo-boo. Now this time around it was not nearly so bad. When they sent us the breakdown of which sides everyone should look at, in the list of people called for Dot there was a question mark after my name. Bummer. You know, I have worked on the other side of the table, I know that with several people casting a show that not everyone is going to agree on each person. I am fine with the fact that someone had reservations about calling me for the role (disappointed, but fine). What I don’t appreciate is that then they made it public. I was the only person with a question mark, although I am sure there must have been other notes throughout the document that then got deleted before it was sent to us. They were just careless. It’s not really a big deal. I mean, I get to audition for the role, which is what I wanted. And it does give me an excuse to find out what exactly I can work on before the auditions, which in a way is kind of nice. It’s just that things are a bit rough with the course all the way around at the moment. There is a lot of unrest among the students, and most of it stems from stuff like this. Carelessness and disorganization. Well enough about that. Right now I am just trying to focus on getting all of this audition material up to scratch. So I have my work cut out for me this week, but it is the kind of work that I love. I am really ready to dive in and get going. My goal for this week, staying positive. Here I go.