Auditions vs. Callbacks

This past Saturday I received some exciting news...I will be performing the role of Lily in The Secret Garden with the Fairfield Summer Theater. It was an expedited audition process compared with what I usually go through. I sang a cattle call on Friday night, a callback Saturday afternoon, and got the casting notice on Saturday night. Going through a process that can take 6 weeks or more in the opera world in a matter of 2 days led me to reflect on the way I feel in an audition for opera versus musical theater. Auditioning for both is a double-edged sword; you get all of the good and the bad of each. Nonetheless, I think it is beneficial to experience both so I'm prepared for wherever my career may take me.

There is the issue of timing with each. In an opera audition slot, you usually get between 5 and 8 minutes; in a musical theater cattle call, you have between 16 and 32 bars (approximately 1 minute). You might think the advantage goes to the longer time slot...at least the panel is spending a bit of time with you and getting to know you as an artist. However, holding focus for that long is extremely difficult. The music is more challenging. There's a larger window to show weakness and error. Then again, when you only have 1 minute, you better know what makes you sparkle. (that was always a favorite word of my mother's when she coached me on auditions during middle and high school: "You go out there and you SPARKLE!!" I did my best). It's a sink-or-swim moment. The problems I face in both auditions are two different versions of each other. I have moderate nerves for opera audition (can I get through all the songs? What if my high note doesn't come out right? Will I keep my knees from locking? In Musical Theater auditions, I worry more about my 'break' (the spot in your voice where your chest voice ends and your mixed voice begins). If I keep the chest too chesty, as I tend to do when I'm nervous, there is a large sound discrepancy between the two ranges. Most of the MT songs I sing start out kinda low for me and then go into the comfy higher range towards the end of the song, so I have to try and not get too excited and blast out the high notes once I get to them.

Then there's the difference in sheer numbers. For opera auditions, you have to pre-apply. Send in a resume, headshot, recommendation letters, sample of unicorn blood....and then you sit and wait to see if the great opera genie grants you an audition. So by the time you get there, the amount of people auditioning is often lower but the talent level can be astronomical. In MT auditions (and granted, I haven't done them in NYC, just Boston, Chicago and Cincy) there are more people. Any schmo can walk in off the street and sing for a cattle call. This equalizes the talent level a great deal. And since broadway types are supposed to be a triple threat singing-acting-dancing, oftentimes I have the edge on the voice, since I've spent much more time honing it than dancing or acting. You'd think this would calm my nerves in the 1 minute of singing...but somehow it doesn't. Adrenaline is adrenaline.

However, once I get to the callback, in either an opera or MT audition, the nerves disappear SO fast. It's like I need that little extra nudge of validation, that "yes, we like you!" middle-school popularity approval, and then I can really shine. The callback this past Saturday was beautiful. I sang through one of the songs twice, with a mini-coaching on it in between. One of the things I think I do well is take and respond to direction. If I know what the director wants, I can give it to him. I WISH judges on an opera audition panel were able to shout out a word or two in the middle of my aria. Sometimes one of them will wave an arm expressively, almost subconsciously, and I am able to read their body cues and respond to them. The worst thing you can get in an audition is a dead-pan judge, scribbling away and then talking to the person next to him about the Panera menu they have in front of them. A callback, in each audition scenario is a chance to show them not only who you are as an artist, but how you work. Can you listen. Can you respond to what they'd like. At the end of my Secret Garden callback, I said what I usuallyjust think in my head when I finish a song, which is "God, I love this music." He agreed.