"SHE LOVES ME"

Another bust. ....Boo.
Nathan and I attended our second audition in the city today. (There haven't been that many auditions since we have been here so far) We decided that we would just go to an audition, even if it wasn't broadway/off-broadway. So, we decided to go to this audition for the musical "She Loves Me". The show would go up in Connecticut at a regional theater and run for a month and it would be an equity contract. The pay wasn't that great, but hey atleast they were paying! :) The up side..."She Loves Me" is a great 'Golden Age' musical, with classically trained, legit singers. Right up our alley! We were so excited to sing good music! The down side...On their website it said that they 'rarely' cast non-equity members. Well, Nathan and I are non-equity members, BUT we decided to go anyway to hope that they would see us! If we got into an equity show, then we would recieve equity points, which would put us on our way to getting our equity card!
        (CLIFF NOTES ON THE EQUITY CARD SITUATION...IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR:
    Actor's Equity is an association that negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans, for its members. Everyone on Broadway and on Broadway tours are a part of Actor's Equity. Let's say if I am not a part of Actor's Equity but work for a few months at an "Equity House" (a theater that works under equity contracts) then I will receive equity points. An actor has to gain a certain number of points in order to receive an equity card. Therefore, if I work under many equity contracts and varying equity houses then I will eventually receive my equity card. However, if I land a role on Broadway, then I automatically receive my equity card.
    Many, Many, Many auditions in New York City are "Equity Auditions". Many are equity auditions because the producers see these actors as the ones who have worked a lot and who are on a professional level of performance. They have worked with reputable regional theaters, etc, etc. Since Nathan and I are non-equity, which means at these equity auditions...we pretty much are on the bottom of the totem pole, the lowest in the food chain, the 'low class society'. :) haha...but, its true.
All of the shows on Broadway are EQUITY CALLS (most of them atleast)...and when you don't have your equity card, you have to wait around (sometimes outside because..like I said...we are non-equity) and hope that the producers see non-equity.

With that said...The audition today for She Loves Me, was an equity call. They were seeing women at 10 and men at 2. We got up at 7am this morning. I put on my dress and red lipstick and Nathan put on his slacks and button up. We were ready to audition! We made it to the studio and saw only about 30 people in the room waiting. We look at eachother and thought...yes, this is what I would expect of a regional theatre in connecticut...I mean, this isn't a Broadway audition. 30 people seems about right. Well..we were WAY wrong. Tons and tons of people starting piling into the holding room. One lady kept screaming "Who is equity in here? Is there a line that has been formed or what?" We definitely felt like we were in the way of all the equity actors. We waiting until 10 am rolled around and the audition monitor arrived. He asked for all of the non-equity people to sign up on a list and he would tell us at 10:15 if the producers were seeing non-equity. I ran to the table as fast as I could in my pencil skirt ;) so I could get to the front of the line. I was NUMBER 9 on the non-equity list! I felt for sure that they would see me! Nathan ran to his line as well, and got to be NUMBER 5 on the male non-equity list. (The men weren't even called until 2pm....so he was REALLY early) Now all we had to do was wait.  I kept looking around at all of the other girls in their dresses, high heels and hot rolled hair and thinking...Bring it on! I am ready for battle! I cannot wait to go in their and sing and walk out thinking...Yay! I got to audition! See...the joy isn't really even getting to audition for the show...but it is so thrilling just to SING! Nathan and I love to sing and perform so much...it is our living. A Musical theater career is in auditioning and not really performing. So, if I get to audition, then technically I am getting the chance to hone my craft.
     Well, the monitor got all of the girls attention and said that they were unfortunately not going to see non-equity girls and would most likely 'type' the equity girls. This means that since so many equity girls showed up they were going to judge the girls by their looks to see if they wanted to hear them sing. The non-equity girls really had no chance. The monitor said he wouldn't be able to say if the producers were going to see non-equity men until around 2:15 pm. Just because they didn't accept non-equity girls, does not mean that they wouldn't see the men. We weren't giving up that easily!

  So, Nathan and I had about 4 hours to kill down in lower manhattan. We decided to go to the World Trade Center Site.

      It is a construction site right now. I don't know if you are aware of the memorial that they are putting there, but this is what they are building.

They are building a very tall building on one side, and then this amazing waterfall that is the shape of a square that goes into the ground. It looks beautiful! 

It is beautiful down there!

Anyway...We walked around the city, sat on a bench and ate our little packed lunches and then headed back to the studio.

We arrived back to the studio at 1pm and found a few chairs and waited. As we were sitting there we saw that there were rehearsals going on for West Side Story on Broadway, upcoming shows on Broadway, and also some rehearsal for HARPO Studios for the Dr. Oz show. (What sort of dance would they be doing on the Dr. Oz show?...i was very confused by that)

I knitted for the entire hour...ya, I looked like the weird girl in the corner quickly knitting a scarf while my shifty eyes looked left and right watching everyone that was around. Nathan just sat and prepared for his hopeful audition. As the hour passed, tons and tons of men of all shapes and sizes poured into the holding room. We were amazed by how many men arrived. Once again, the monitor came out and said that they would not be seeing non-equity men, due to the plethora of equity men that arrived. Nathan looked at me from across the room and shook his head no to tell me that they wouldn't see him. It was very disheartening.

In conclusion, we left the audition half feeling like we had wasted our entire day sitting in a studio and roaming around, and the other half feeling proud of ourselves for sticking it out and being prepared regardless.

We know that we have chosen a different and challenging career, but the truth of the matter is that we love what we do. All we are praying for is an opportunity. We rush to wait and we essentially prepare for a small possibility of being seen.

We are currently looking into voice lessons, masterclasses, and cold-readings of new plays. We have sent out our headshots, resume's, and reels to agency's, soap opera's, tv networks, and various other companies. We are trying to do everything we can to do what we love.

 as always, we'll keep you updated!

here's a pic from the audition today: