BARNUM

So, My BARNUM call back.

Yesterday morning I had an ivitation to go back in to Chelsea studio for another chance to book this show. When I got there I saw that there were other people there I had not seen from the dance call, So I was trying to figure out where they could have come from. Turns out there were people from the singers call, and who had been submitted by their agents. Darn them and there agents! I had recognized a guy from being on BROADWAY in the dance musical HOT FEET, and found out that there were other guys there who had just been cast in the new BWAY show ANGELS, which sadly got put on hold cause of financial decisions.
But here I am, this is the level of my oppisition, everyones trying to get a job. There were probably 20 of us give or take, and right before we started to dance the casting director says "ok and Alfie Parker, you are the only one who is not in the union of equity?"
Gees I thought way to totally call me out and ostrisize me. Oh well, hey at least I made it that far right being the only non ec guy. Anyway we danced in 2s, and I have to admit I didn't do my absolute best, but I ended up making it past that cut. They cut maybe 6 or more guys, and then we had to tap.
So I was debating on whether I wanted to put my tap shoes on or not since they're new, and since I haven't taken a tap class since my sophomore year in college. I am not the best tapper, I know the vocab but not the body weight distribution, I stay to upright and rigid and don't relax my muscles. So needless to say I was scared, but I put them on and stood in the back. Then the worst part happened,
He made us do it one by one, ... oh s*#&^$%!
Well the Choreographer is awesome and he stood right up there with us working on certain parts, just making sure we could get it with 4 weeks of rehearsal, He seems like he would be a great guy to work for. Well they decided to keep all of us to sing. So here we go, made it past dancing phew, praise God.
They wanted us to sing the same song, so I changed it up a bit, and sang it slower and more melodic, which they liked, but then they asked me to sing something that was fun and up beat so I had to pull my Mean Ole Lion out of my bag of tricks so to speak, from THE WIZ. Now I haven't sung that song in a while so I was just doing this for the fun of it. It was fun, I was over the top, and they were laughin right along with me, I even messed up the words, and it was still good.
What was interesting that had never happened to me before was after I sang they asked me what my EMC status was. Which means where are you in terms of getting your equity card, and joining the union. Which I thought was an entirely weird question to ask. But I told them that I was actually presented with a contract that would give me my card in October, Then the casting Lady says, but our show starts rehearsal in October, which I slowly replied, with maybe a slight smikr, or smile on my face, "I Know", and then explained how I have not signed a contract with them yet. SO then they asked me to read another scene which went well, he had me read it twice, and then they let me go.
SO all and all it was a good time, good audition.

Well I got a call around 5pm from the theatre in florida that is doing the show, to offer me a contract in the show. Not just any contract but a Full Equity Contract!!!
WOO HOO God did it!
SO I will be a full fledge union member when the first day of rehearsals starts, which is in 6 weeks!
Yeah Now I can buy groceries!!!

Life in the big city!

Ok Ok, so I suck at keepin up with all my auditions, forgive me. But it's really hard now!

So here I am, I have officially moved outside they great city of Manhattan, and pretty much have just hit the pavement running. I've had up to 3 auditions a week since I moved into my home almost a month ago, starting off with the one that was the next day after getting off the plane. They've ranged from Non equity tours to Symphonic concert performances, to Broadway shows. I've been doing well, so that makes me happy.

Here is just a list of the shows I've gone in for.

MY FAIR LADY

IN THE MOOD

THE PAJAMA GAME

IN THE HEIGHTS

ON THE TOWN

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

BARNUM

LEGALLY BLONDE

I got a call back for BARNUM for this friday so I can go more into detail about that later, that was a pretty fun audition.

Life here is pretty cool, It's kind of surreal in a way, that I actually live here. I have been dreaming about this for such a long time.

WHat OK City got to see

here are some of the professional shots that were taken of us on stage this summer,

You can see more at Mutz photography.com, all credit to them!!

SHining WHite Knightress

SO we have opened 7BRIDES!!! YEAH!!!

We were actually scared if we could pull it off in time cause learning this big show in one week was real daunting at first, during rehearsals there never seem to be a point where we could get every aspect together. Out tech rehearsal even went well into our dress rehearsal, oh this past weekend was so long, at the theatre past midnight. And then one of the worst things that could happen did. Melissa one of our beautiful dancing brides had to get rushed to the orthopedist. She already has had surgery on her ankle and foot, and during SWING had rolled over it the wrong way again, and this would now be the second time she has twisted it in rehearsal for 7BRIDES. We knew at this point it wasn't good.

This all happened during our dress rehearsal the night before we opened! So we all went home no knowing how she was and what was going to happen. But everyone was talking about who they could even possbliy replace her with since no one has an understudy, and there are no swings.

It was kind of like the situation in SWING when I had to step in for Richard in the bungee number. He hurt his shoulder and they didn't want to take the chance, so since I had been there learning it just in case,( which we call swinging something) I was in. So we get the call to come in hr earlier cause we have a new girl that we have to put in the show, Ha theres nothing like live theatre! Turns out they got Lauren back!! Lauren who we call Lulu was the only one in our swing ensemble to not be in 7BRIDES, so we were all real excited that she's back shes a great dancer, infact she just had to choose between the tour of the RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR, and the tour of MOVING OUT. They called her late monday night, and she got in her jeep at midnight drove 200 miles and was here by 630am for a 9am put in rehearsal, talk about a shining Knight, and her Jeeps white too HA!

But, hey when it comes down to it, everybody knows that as soon as theres an audience some how evereything seems to work out. God uses his muses to always make sure of that.

Anyway, we've had standing ovations both nights Lulu is fitting right in and looks great! Only 4 more shows to go!!

SWING is officially over now, well it has been for a week now sorry. The shows were for the most part great! In fact they were all pretty good accept thursdays show. For some reason the audience on that thursday was horrible. they gave us no energy, no feedback, no nothin, and in a adrenaline show like SWING, you need the high energy from the audience to bounce back on you to hype you up, so that night seemed to drag on, which made people tired, and make mistakes, and just effect everyones mood. Of course that had to be the night when some of the guys from our 7BROTHERS cast would come to see us. But ever other show was great!

But that's all over now, and 7BRIDES has started rehearsal, in fact we go into tech tonight! Geesh, things here run so fast! This is what is considered summer stock theatre. Where you are rehearsing one show during the day, and performing another at night. It's how almost every musical theatre college student, and up in coming professional builds there resume, cause you get a couple of shows in a little bit of time. For instance what would usually be a 1 show contract of 5 weeks, is 2 shows down here, and, if I was in the next show, it would've been 2 shows and a full week of rehearsal for the next show! So needless to say this is the fastest I have ever put a show together. But it's been very good cause I have had to continue to train my mind to be professional, and learn quickly. But this has also been the most professional contract I have done, even over the tour of EVITA. I have never worked with so many talented working people before. I'm surrounded by TV stars, people who have been on BROADWAY in, LES MIZ, KISS ME KATE, MOVING OUT, TOMMY, WICKED, and others who have been working consistently or who have been concert dancing professionally with Mia Michaels, and with Desmond Richardson in Complexions. It has truly been a great experience here. All that said, I am tired of Oklahoma, and I'm ready to go home. Especially now since I have a new home!

Anyway, the 7BRIDES cast is pretty cool, of course most of us have all been here this summer, but they brought in 8 more guys of course. SO this is an incredibly huge cast. We have the 7 suitors,( which I'm one of, they're the original boyfriends of the brides), the 7brides, the 7brothers( who the girls end up marrying), a gaggle of annoying kids which consist of 2 boys and about 7 girls, 4 parents, 1 preacher, and a baby(but it's just a doll).

To try and round us all together, we had another theme day!!! This one you could day was for the boys cause we decided to go Camo! We had a good time, and lots of people joined in.

This weekend will be once again filled with 12hr tech rehearsals, accept for sunday which is so nice around here. Then we open on Tuesday! and then I come home next sunday Woohooo!!

Bounce me brother

Here's a little clip from rehearsal on that fun day when skiddles upchucked all over us. By the way they mmade me wear that shirt!

It has been a whirlwind of rehearsals, dance combinations, costume fittings, and tech calls.

And we have finally opened!

It has been crazy busy, and I have had no time to to do anything besides work. There would be a whole lot to write to catch you up, but I don't think you wanna read all that. SO I'll tell stories thru pictures using caps.

The ensemble is one of the awesomest groups of people I have ever worked with! And I love everyone of them! Especially this little dude who I've nick named Mighty mouse, who can just standing kick his leg back and hit the back of his head. My roomate is Josh, He's a goofball and we have a good time, he's also my shauffer for our great PT cruiser.

One really great day was when we decided to all come in wearing the most brightest, miss matching colors that we could. We had totally shocked everybody cause we had come in all black the day before.

We opened the show last night, honestly I felt horrible afterward, it was my worst show, I'm not in alot of the dance numbers unfortunately, and everyone I was in I messed up, so I felt really sucky, about myself, to the point where I was going to have a drink at the bar at the opening party.( If you know me you know I don't like alcohol, but I didn't end up getting that one drink). Despite my screw ups, we still got a standing ovation, how awesome, Praise the Lord!

The only reason I have the time now to write is because I am in rehearsal right now for the next show 7 Brides, and of course I'm really only in 1 scene in this musical, so theres a lot of time to rest and catch up. NO rest for the weary.