New York, New York

Wel... this past week has been quite a journey, but I now sit on my couch in my Upper East Side apartment. I still can't believe that this is my home, something about this whole trip still feels like a vacation. When I was unloading my clothes to put them in the closet, the thought crossed my mind... "why am I unloading them... I'm just going to have to pack them up again..." but, no, not soon anyway. This whole week has been kind of a dream, looking at 15 apartments, only to have all but one of my favorite ones taken by an earlier applicant. Finally getting my dream apartment, building all the furniture, seemingly from scratch, though they are all from IKEA, and living in my room, all by myself. Judy left yesterday, though she has been on this journey with me from the start. So now, my new life begins. Just thinking about it I am getting teary-eyed and I feel a lump starting in my throat. To quite Sondheim (or Little Red Riding Hood, which ever you prefer), "I'm excited and scared..."

Well, last week I had my very first audition, and it was for something called Broadway Idol. It claims to be like American Idol, but with Broadway songs. I thought that this was perfect for me, and since I have actually auditioned for American Idol, I figured I had some small advantage. However, that experience worked against me. I know that when you audition for American Idol, you audition for them for the first time singing a capella. This ended up not being the case at Broadway Idol. I wanted to sing "Cabaret" since that is the song that I normally feel great about (and impress many people with at Karaoke bars), but when I got inside, the people running the audition asked us to get our sheet music ready. SHIT! I don't have sheet music to "Cabaret', but I do have my whole music notebook with me (I have it in case of emergencies... this would count as a musical theatre emergency). One of the girls in line saw that I was momentarily freaking out and told me that there was a music store right down the street. Well, down the street I ran, in the shoes that already gave me a blister that morning. I entered the music store, found one of the guys working there and asked him where I could find the single sheet music (not a full book). He showed me the song, I grabbed it, paid for it, and ran back. I got back in line (I was third, but no one saved my spot so I ended up being 12th after the quick journey) and looked at my sheet music to make the appropriate cut. As I glance through it, I notice that I this version is a full three steps higher than the original, causing me to have to belt an F at 10 o'clock in the morning. I was not about to risk sounding awful since I hadn't warmed up. I then picked the song from my notebook that I had done most recently... "What I Did for Love" it is. I hated that that was the song I chose since I knew that doing an uptempo would be the thing to help me stand out, and that song is anything but uptempo. I was called to come in, I set my bag of music in the back of the room and preceded to the stage. I sang my song and the three judges sitting at the tables were not impressed... the music director, however, asked me to do an uptempo... I KNEW IT! He was the accompanist and seemed to really like my voice and was saved from having to watch my messy performance full of nerves, anxiety, and craziness after running around Times Square. I sang an uptempo, "Johnny One Note" and couldn't quite calm my adrenaline rush and got no laughs at a song that usually gets the audience to at least giggle.

Well, a lesson is learned in every situation. I need to go into every audition already planning what I can do if something goes wrong with my initial choice. I have also learned that I need to be confident and "own the room" no matter what stress I just went through. The auditioners want to know that I am not a crazy loon, but a confident talented girl. I'll do better next time.