March 22nd, 2010 by soullldiva

Wow, what a week for moi!

I am super excited that my very good friend and dance teacher, Maria, is going ahead with her original musical “From the Heart of Love”(TM). I was part of the original workshop when it was done back in 1997 at the Glendale Center Theatre. It was an amazing production to be a part of, as it began with just a really beautiful poem (and was slated to only be a poetry reading with dancing), and grew to be a full-fledged show, with scenes, original music, and all types of dancing from ballet to African, swing to rhythmic stepping (we had a former member of STOMP! in our cast).

Maria and her producers have brought the project out again for a backers audition in August, and we’re beginning auditions tomorrow. The (what turned out to be) huge task of setting up all the auditions came down to me. Now, I’d done this before, but not on this huge of a scale. We’re holding auditions from 1pm to 8pm, and I was to double-book appointments every 10 minutes. That is a total of eighty-six (I spelled it out so I could bold it) appointments to fill.

Now, you think it would be easy-peasy to fill up an audition in THIS town. Yes, I’m talking about Los Angeles. A town where probably half the population is in the entertainment industry in some way, yet only about 10% (or less) of them work regularly. It’s a tough biz, baby.

We had posted casting calls online, and got a good amount of submissions. Maria also had people she’d already worked with the wanted to have come in. First I went through all the submissions (with Maria) and picked out those we wanted to see, then transferred them one by one from the online sites to a spreadsheet with their info and personal notes about them (like, they do Bollywood, or mime) we’d all want to know. That took more time than I thought!

Then the calls. I made over 75 phone calls and got to speak to probably only about 25 of them initially (you artists are busy). Then I waited. And waited. And sent a few emails out, and a few Facebook nudges. And calls trickled in. Wow, talk about biting my nails! I started actual calls on the Thursday before the Monday audition and just now (on Sunday) have filled the day with 56 appointments.

Whew! I’m exhausted. And the auditions are tomorrow!! And there will probably be more auditions before the workshop cast is finished.

But now is where the real fun begins: the discovery of wonderful, beautiful, orignal talent. And what are we looking for? The Individual. As Miss Mia Michaels says, “You are the only one of you.” Damn straight.

Let you know how it goes, cross your fingers for us!!