Chaos Attraction

Bye Bye Birdie Audition

2022-03-06, 6:39 p.m.

recently on Chaos Attraction
The Glamour of Theater - 2022-03-11
Lying Liar Who Lied - 2022-03-10
10 Minute Play Auditions - 2022-03-09
Not Much - 2022-03-08
The Bad Place Again - 2022-03-07

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Cast list as of November 2019

Sunday show:

I got to see the photo for the "Rum Bunny Run" show, with Clocky in his bunny slippers and a line about "This is really the name of the drink?" I wants it.

I got to see the very gorgeous portrait of the kid playing the Beast. Judi (Matthew's mom, who seems to be in charge of sets) said they were going to have to slash his face, which seems a shame.

Marie's bear is now getting a face mask to match hers. ADORBS.

When I walked into the dressing room, Dannette was going on about "City of Angels," which apparently she is also a fan of. Since that's the show I am doing my audition song for, maybe that's a good sign?

Quotes from the dressing room:

"I was going to put on a sweater, then remembered I covered myself in dirt, never mind." -me

Sofia reported that Paul wants to skydive now, and said "I'm mad at you!" Her: "How long are you going to be mad at me?" Him: "One more second."

Sofia: "I have imaginary audience syndrome."

Sofia reporting back on what a friend said about her skydiving video: "Let me know if you survived." Her: "Well, I'm sending this to you." Friend: "I haven't finished watching it yet...."

Sierra: "Good to know the deer in the headlights face is working." "How many times can you say you get bound and gagged for an entire act?" Sarah: "You look back on it with fondness."

Morgan: "My Spanx are cold." Sarah: "You'll be grateful for that in about 20 minutes."

Sofia: "If you're not chewing up the scenery, you're doing it wrong."

Sierra on being tied up and then letting herself out of the ropes: "I could have gotten out at any time." Me: "And you just sat there waiting for death."

Steve on the elderly Sunday audience: "The audience lived through the Stink Years," and "They have to pee a lot," and "It Depends. Get it?"

Sierra: "This is a Future Sierra problem."

Sarah showed us some penis candy that a friend gave her: "I promised him I'd make sure everyone saw."

I met some of Sarah's friends after the show--I note that the outfit I put on was pretty RenFaire and they liked it because they used to be rennies--and the guy (possibly the penis-gifter?) said, "I married the knife wench. And now I have too many weapons." I was all, happy to hang out with you guys ANY TIME. I also met their musician friend Angela, who said, "Musicians are supposed to be in the pit for a reason."

As for the show, it went well. Huzzah.


Auditions, Winters news:

(a) I have changed my audition for Winters to Wednesday (again), I have the option of going to One Last Karaoke on Monday, if that actually happens. Or auditioning for Evita if I fucking snap.

(b) Linda sent out scripts for this. They were the following: *

Tailwind (we've already talked about this one :)

A creepy one about a middle-aged couple that I don't think I'd want to audition for (I bet that's the one Rodney directs)

"Jorge Does Chanukah," which has a wife character and frankly, I am not the obvious racial demographic (Jewish) to audition for it and the wife's lines weren't that interesting anyway as it's a father/son piece, so. (Possibly the other option for Rodney to direct.)

The aforementioned older lady dates again monologue--again, not my demographic.

A play in which Hamlet becomes a PI and a Valley Girl-ish girl hires him to investigate her fiance. This would be the other one I'd love to audition for, as it was pretty fun and I enjoy the Hamlet vs. Valley Girl contrast (he talks about Ophelia's maidenhood, she's all "TMI" to this). This seems like the only one of the bunch I could see Scott doing--we know he does brooding Shakespeare well. And I note that the two characters make out in the script. THREE TIMES. THREE TIMES IN A TEN MINUTE PLAY. This seems...odd... to me? Yeah, I probably wouldn't be cast as the girl in it, but at least I'd try.

I note that Linda cc'd Bridget, Robert and Janene on the same list as me, so presumably they are also auditioning.


Auditions, Bye Bye Birdie:

I'm told there were a whopping twelve people at the Saturday at noon audition. This one had 37 people (plus parents), and it a busy zoo, was mostly fairly little kids and teens and maybe ... six-ish adults? One married couple auditioning with their kid, my coworker Erik, and my old theater buddies Jean and Sabrina from The Producers! We were all happy to see each other and agreed that all of us just wanted to be in the ensemble/just be in the show. Well, that's the ladies, anyway. Erik is not a huge talker, but I am pretty sure he was auditioning for Conrad Birdie, given that (a) he did the dance number for teens/Conrad ("Got A Lot Of Livin' To Do) and then did "It's Now Or Never," VERY ELVIS-Y, for his audition number.

(No, Scott didn't audition. I kinda want to kick him. According to Facebook he's going for Evita. Which makes me almost want to audition for it, except I don't really want to except to be around him, except I'm TIRED and don't super wanna do a serious one...aw fuck.)

Here's a mystery of this audition: who the heck is auditioning for leads in this show? From what I recall off the top of my head of the adults, there's Albert, Rose, Albert's mother (I'd cast Jean as this actually, I bet she would rock it, see below), Gloria, Conrad, and the McKee parents. Now presumably you could cast the couple parents in this audition as those people. I presume Erik is shooting for Conrad. But I didn't see any leading men or leading ladies. Well, I amend that: ONE guy, clearly of the "young and handsome" variety, went first and then left, not even hanging around for the dance audition, and afterwards we were all "whatever happened to that guy?!" Now, theoretically maybe, I dunno, Danny and Jori (who I'd cast as Albert and Rose if they auditioned--Danny totally does nebbish and Jori is actually of the right racial demographic to do Rose + leading lady) could have auditioned at noon Saturday for all I know. But this seemed all sheep and no sheepherders, potentially. Looking at the list of parts...of course, there's a lot of men and no men.

Mask report: nobody checking for vaccination. Masks optional. Maybe 30-40% of the people had one on. They did have the singing happen masks off but from far away in the room, at least.

Fun fact: Jean got into Madagascar (as did my new lunch-on-campus friend Rachel) and she said that everyone just has a number and they play certain characters.

To describe this audition: you went in the number you came in. I got there like 12 minutes early and got #25, Erik, Sabrina and Jean went after that and I did hang around to watch them. They had the first 25 of us sing first, THEN did a dance number audition of "Honestly Sincere" for everyone, THEN had a second dance number for teens and Conrad to "Got A Lot Of Livin' To Do," and then finished off the rest of the singers. I do not get this logic. Why not do the dang dance numbers first, THEN let people sing and leave? Why do it in the middle? I could have actually left around 7:45 but stayed to watch everyone else. They, of course, did very well and actually moved around and acted stuff out while they sang and I thought, "I wish I'd done that more." I thought about doing the "teen" number but since actual teens were there, I thought not. Sabrina (who is pretty borderline) tried it and said it was hard, and I gather the director said she wasn't sure where to cast her and Sabrina said she didn't care, she just wants to be in the show.

As for how I did: talked my song out with the piano player (who was confused that my verse wasn't listed on the sheet music, I said I could not find any that listed it), and I did well enough for me. I forgot one line but I don't think anyone noticed, and at least nobody winced in horror or looked horrendously dead about it. I had a lot of fun with the dance number, which was easy. The director, who sounds like a fun lady, said to either do it as (a) you're really into the music, or (b) you're not normally into this sort of thing, but SUDDENLY THE MUSIC OVERTAKES YOU. I did the former, as did Sabrina and Erik, but Jean TOTALLY went for "omg, I'm a total nerd and suddenly I'm dancing awkwardly OMG OMG" and it was flabbergastingly amazing. She goes for character, she said.

One little girl did "On My Own" better than anyone ever could. I'm so jealous. I could never :(

If you get a callback, they email you by Tuesday. They did NOT give a time estimate for how long it takes them to decide the entire show. I asked "since I'm going for ensemble and probably won't get an actual part, what's the time estimate for that?" and I get the impression the answer is "hell if we know," but actual answer given was "well, as soon as possible."


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