a little life from death

hey everyone,

I just wanted to tell you that my Granmother's funeral went very well.

I ended up singing for it, Great is thy faithfullness, great classic.

And the next day I was inspired to do this painting in honor of her.

Be sure to stay posted for more info on EVITA

The Foundation

SO,
Yesterday I went took the chinatown bus to NYC. I had to go Ctown way cause Greyhound didn't have a bus that would get me there in time. (and you know I swear the driver was more speaking spanish then Chinese.) He also drove like the dickens!
So I get to wonderful Chelsea studios about an hr before the callback, and munch on some wonderful peanut m&ms, oh the blessed chocolate and nut! Anyway, I veg out to All My Children for about a half hr, and after throwing up in mouth, though still having to give credit where it's due,( hey those actors are working), I head over to the warm up room. The first person I see is the tall black guy from the audition whose voice could be heard from 2 studios over, I knew he had the job, and then the rest were girls stretching.
Well, good rule of thumb you want to be at an audition at least 40 mins early. By 2pm there were still only 2 guys, Him and me, Whoah, I thought, I was expecting 4 of us from the day before, so the director could pick the 2 he wanted.
I guess I was wrong.
So they bring us into the other studio where the choreographer and director, and Casting director are, and we go over the combination from before. It's 7 girls and us 2 guys. Now the girls were all vying for 1 spot, but us guys were told she was looking for 2 men. The director was giving us very specific notes about arms and stopping quick out of turns, really making sure that I knew that he was speaking to me. I didn't think He liked me at all. Well he makes us dance it a couple times back to back, which was very tiring, but his reasoning was this section comes after a 9 min dance number get used to it.
Well the whole thing took about 20 mins or so, and that was it, they didn't have us sing again or nothing. I had to come all they way back here for 20 mins. GEESH. They tell some information about the tour, starts rehearsing aug 20, for 3 weeks 10 month contract, and then they tell us, thanks our manager will let you know sometime after a week when she gets back from vacation. WHat! all that and you still aren't going to tell us, come on we're big kids we can handle rejection at this point.
So, we left, a little defeated, I ended up be friending the the other guy, his name is Watkin(picture coming). We connected cause He is a Christian also, it's tough in this field to find people with the samesince of morality.
Well to get to the point.
On my way home when I was talking to my little brother, I received a call from the casting assistant that they wanted to offer me a part in the NATIONAL TOUR OF EVITA!!!!
....more soon to follow

THE ARGENTINIAN AWKWARD ARM POSTURE

Well this morning I wake up early all ready to go for this audition, so I thought. Then the day unfolded it's dastardly tricks.

And it all started with me not being able to find my shorts, or my flipflops. Oh geesh, so I spent a good portion of my time freakin out about what to do, instead of simple get ready things like putting on lotion to my ashy legs and feet.( I felt so awful all day with bad lookin feet). And now I am extremely late for catching the bus. Remember this bus is the one that I just missed last time, Greyhound likes to overbook their trips. by the way you haven't experienced the life of an artist if you have not taken a bus to get somewhere. Anyway, so I am way late for the bus, but Praise God it hasn't left yet, oh wait... in fact it's 20 mins late. Golley Gees!

So I knew we weren't going to get into the city until 9:20am, that's ok I thought, I still will have about 20 mins before the audition to get ready. So I fall in and out of consciousness as the typical bus ride in sues. We get more than half way there, and then it dawns on me, I FORGOT MY JAZZ SHOES!!!!! AWWW MAN. What is wrong with this day, am I not supposed to be at this audition! So I know that I can't dance barefoot, or in socks, so I plan my route to the nearest dance store by the bus station. Of course it is in the opposite direction of the audition studio, which happens to be Chelsea,( aww blessed m&ms).

Now to give you a number scale of what I had to exercise thru. Port Authority is 4oth st, Time Square is 38th to 51st. Capezio dance store 51st and 8th ave, and Chelsea studios is 26th, between 6 and 7th ave. Now the Dance store wasn't even opened when I got there, which was after 9:30, mind you the audition is at 10. The gate was still half way down, but I only had to wait for about 2 mins, and they came over, of course I shot thru to the shoes, and kind of grabbed the first ones I saw and said get me these in my size. With the shoes in tow hopped on the subway to the 23rd st stop. Ended up getting on the express to Brooklyn, and hop off at 34th penn station, to transfer, but Praise the lord, I was able to get off at 28th and Broadway.( There's some New York sub life for ya).

I get to the studio about 9:55, and just figure I'll be in one of the later groups, I look into the room and I see a room with about 10 people a long the perimeter, including Andre and Chris from my show now. ( Andre from earlier blogs, and Chris is the other one in the picture on the left holding his leg up.) Well turns out there were only 18 guys who showed up for this call, Andre tells me they already had a call, and are still looking for guys. So I made it cool. Well the audition dance was so weird. It had all these weird inverted arms, and flipped wrists, that made you look so unmanly, Oh I forgot to say what show, this was for the National Tour of EVITA.

So she tells us as well that it's all about the arms too, oh great just what I need to worry about. well I ended up in the first group to go, and boy was I not ready. So they let me go again at the end, where I did a whole lot better. Praise the Lord!!! The choreographer said she was only looking for 2 guys to fill the cast, and she kept 5 to sing, and yes, I was one of them. So we had to do this foot rhythm thing which we all bombed, and then lined up to sing, which I was last to do, and then after I sang they asked if I could come Tuesday and sing and dance for the director, um ...I said yes. So you'll hear about that later.

The Auditions Benefit

The audition process is not glorious at all. A lot of signing up, standing in lines, and sheer waiting for hrs. To have the right frame of mind for it, you have to think of it as your job for the day. For instance, I can get up as early as 5am to get ready for an audition at 10 am in NYC, might not even get seen til after 12pm and get back home or just in philly by 4,5pm.

Now the only thing that these auditions give everyone, is the gift of time, time with with like minded people. And usually you go with your friends, or just see people from other shows you were in. There's even a whole lot of new relationships being developed from just seeing the same people over and over again.(you can see in the picture how everyone just gets comfortable on the floor) Being in the performing arts you see more regularly how small the world is.

Well, after the wedding singer audition, and running into my fantastic friend Kim, we went out to lunch and caught up and decided that we should all try out for HAIRSPRAY together. So we called our friend Jimmi, who did Aida with us as well, had him come down as well, and we all auditioned together. It was great! I ended up running into 3 other Penn Staters, and met someone else who performed with another friend of mine from PS, fantastic new friends and relational building.

The audition was fun, the dance was really fast and full of energy. None of us got past so we all left and decided to enjoy each others company. It was great to hangout, made a new friend that Kim brought along from her other show. I love Jimmi and Kim, they're both very talented and great hearted people. (remember Kim is in the first national tour of THE WEDDING SINGER!!!)have fun lookin at the photo's!!

80"s Pop!

Well hello, yes it has been a little while, for that I am sorry.

Nothing to exciting has been happening at the theatre. We are doing a great job with the show, but there is no other exciting thing going on. I guess that's not true, We have been passed on to the second round of category judging for the barrymore awards. In philly it's like our local Tony awards( which by the way the Tony's is on this sunday night, it's the oscars for broadway and live stage.)

Anyway so we are getting that prestige which is pretty cool for this small up and coming theater. Oh and here's a cool heart feel good. So on Sunday after the show I was summoned to come out quick after the show to see someone who wanted to see me after the show. It turned out to be this little boy. 7 or 8, and he had wrote my name on this ticket and drew a star on it, and gave it to me. His mom said that I totally inspired him, and had really had a great effect on him, and that he wanted to talk to me during intermission but was to scared. so that was pretty cool, and made my day. and get this, it ended up being one of the judges son. Ha!

Anyway, this past monday I got up early and took the trek up to NYC for the audition for the first national tour of The Wedding Singer. Yes it is takin straight from the movie. Yeah wouldn't this be a fun show to be doing for a yr, totally. Now this wasn't the first audition for this. They had one earlier in march, which I thought I totally missed out on. But then I saw another posting for men in may on their website. I was extremely happy that i still had a chance. and I'd also come to find out that the owner of the theater I work at now has friends in the production company of this tour, so he was even able to make a call for me. But they had screwed up on their website and put the wrong days and dates, so I missed that one too. Then I saw the one for this past monday, and so come hell or high water( and it seemed like the latter was about to be presented), I made a way there. Now it was a singers call, and they wanted an 80's pop song, oh gees, so I had to go out and by a new song book, and figure out a song. So I get to good old chelsea studios, with my fantastic peanut m&ms, and go check in the room.

WHOAH!!

All white guys. That's right, the posting did say they were still looking for the leads, and for Ronald Reagan, and Billy Idol look alike for the ensemble. So here I am in a sea of vanilla, wondering if I should even stay. Now there is only 1 black guy in the show and that is only because in the 80's montage he is Mr. T. Now I figured they already have there guy, but maybe they didn't have his understudy. I decided to wait out in the lobby watch some tv, when who calls me out from the doorway but my friend Kim, from my show Aida! Awesome! Now I had been trying to get ahold of her so I was ecstatic to see her. I was also very excited to see her, because I was told that she had gotten a role in the very thing I was there for, The Wedding Singer, so I was trying to congratulate her. She is the only black girl in the show, for the 80's montage of being Tina Turner.

Now she told me they already had their black guy, but that this company always keep people on file, so I stayed and sang. Now by the time I was up there had come more black guys, but none really for the look of Mr T. Since it was 80's pop, and I really didn't have much time, I had to go with something I kind of knew, So We are the World was what I was stuck with, and the funny thing is I had to learn the notes of the verse from the youtube video of the actual 80's recording. which was pretty cool to see again. God still has a plan. Somethings going to happen.