The College Try...

Easter came and went. The audition season is about to fizzle out for the musical theatre jobs and I still sit with no gig. I DID give it my best effort though. I must have gone to over 100 calls for various things. I got good responses, but for the most part it was a luke warm response. A lot of it had to do with the crashing of the American economy. Quite a few Broadway shows, mostly musicals, closed in January and February. As I showed up for auditions more and more I noticed the Broadway folk were showing up for anything and everything. Summer seasons were packed at chorus calls. Principal appointment times were next to impossible to get unless you were in line at 6am. It was just insane. As the season began to fizzle so did attendance. One of my friends suggested that most might not be hiring because they already found people they wanted for this season from last season. I have no footing here in NY and from my observation it was mainly about whom you know and whom they trust. I know no one really. I saw lots of hugs and recognition of important people behind the table with my fellow peers. It was also about resume. One suspected that if you knew the show they were doing, your chances of getting seen for that show were greater. Theatres wanted shorter rehearsal periods to get the shows up making them cheaper. Also fewer contracts are being offered to union members since it is an expense to hire us. All these factors come into play in my first real audition season in NY. I've been here before for other seasons, but I've taken it casually since I had so much debt at those times. My survival (temp) job came first and it was 9 to 5. Almost all auditions happen right at peak working times. Just after 9 to 5ers start and just after the lunch break. It rarely goes into post work hours. You have to have an evening job, no job, work from home, or a VERY understanding employer to take full grasp of the audition season. Auditions are still happening, but now far and few between. From now until October is a time to train, make money from a survival job, and rethink material for next season. So it's back to the drawing board for next season. I'll try again, but this season really hit hard on the ego. When I lived in San Diego it didn't take me long to get on my feet and once I was in it, I networked like crazy and made connections. New York is a much bigger playing field with a plethora of players and they just keep flocking here every year. I hope to find something soon. Otherwise my next plan of attack will be to travel at sea for a while if possible and then settle somewhere. I've discovered I can only take so much of this constant pressure lifestyle before the Midwest in me surfaces and says: "whoa, what's happening?" I think those that grew up here are used to it all through life and can take more. The rest of us have a bigger battle.

So now the weather is perking up and it's time to shift focus. I DO have a show coming up at the end of the month with some friends of mine. We decided to call ourselves Harmonic Proposal and our show Enjoy The Journey is about living life to the fullest throughout and experiencing new things. It was fun and frantic to put together, but now it's finally coming along and we have just over a week before it's presented. I'm excited and nervous since it will be my first gig in the city taking place in the gayest part of town, the West Village, at the Duplex. For years we have been playing around at the piano learning parts and singing our favorite musical theatre songs and now we get to have a venue for it. Other than a small apartment and once in a while at a themed party. It was a learning experience getting to this point with promotional material, composition, and just pure business. A crash course so to speak. I hope to see it successful.

My yoga classes in the city are what has been keeping me not only sane, but fit. I started Bikram Yoga class in November after studying it in Seattle every Sunday I could over the past summer. Once I got into it after my intro month, I decided to take a plunge and work/study for my classes. In short I clean house for 5 hours every Friday and I get 5 classes in return (a savings on my budget of $180/month). I managed through my 30-day challenge this way. 30 days of Bikram yoga in a row. It was definitely challenging. More so on the scheduling side than on the physical side. Although the physical exhaustion came into play roughly around day 20. I was in the home stretch and feeling it. Every muscle was changing in new ways and I was working through it all. Now I practice at least 5 times a week or try to. My heart rate gets up so high and I sweat so much there's really no need to go to the gym. Especially since I take dance classes as well. I just need to focus on getting more protein now so I don't lose my muscle mass. That 90 minutes of pure focus though and escape from all that has happened throughout the day does help mentally. I always come out cool and collected and ready to face all the distractions of the city. Without it, I would have probably run out of here screaming.