I love dancing

Alright last week was my last audition for a while, since I'll be going down to Florida soon to do BARNUM. In this bizness you're always trying to work, and have consistent work, which means setting yourself up to have back to back gigs or shows, hince why I have still been audtioning for stuff. Just trying to make sure I have work next year. So Last week I auditioned for the tour of DORA DORA. Nothin special to report. The only thing that really happened was when I was called to dance the casting Lady had to also add the fact that I had a job already to my name, pretty much putting me on blast in front of everybody. She is the same casting company that cast BARNUM, so she knew me from that. So I felt bad that she did that in front of everybody. With my mind on all of that it made me totally mess up my audition, but I still made it thru, and sang my song. Oh yeah and the pianist is a friend from school who was actually in my choir at Penn State, who is now a piano sub for THE LITTLE MERMAID

The more important thing that happened last week was my dancing gig for this Bahtmitzpha. My friend contacted me ealier this summer to dance for her for this gig. I also found out that the man who was her, and our boss, was also another Penn State graduate that I had known. Go STATE! Any way the theme for the party was old Hollywood Glamour, so Katrina came up with the idea of the IT girl thru the ages, and to have the birthday girl come out at the end to be the it girl of 2000. We had 3 rehearsals during the week, and then performed at the party saturday night, though we had to be there all day. Let me just say that I knew this was a big deal when I found out how much I was getting paid for this, and then times that by 10 for all the dancers, and realized wow if they're planning on spending that much just for our part of the entertainment. Then I found out that they didn't like they carpeting in the country club of the ball room, so they had it taken out and white tile put in. Yeah it was like that. They even had little California Pizza Kitchen, KFC, and McDonalds stands for the kids, and to top it off, at the end on the way out they had a whole mock Dunkin Dounuts stand set up. No joke. I heard the whole thing was around....$250,000. And that's all I have to say about that.

The other really amazing thing that happened last week happened on Monday. I gave myself the goal this year that by the end of the year I would be tumbling. I've found that with my body size, and look people assume I tumble, and everything has tumbling in it these days, especially Disney shows. I thought I wouldn't be able to uphold that goal cause all summer I was in Ok city, and the only place I knew gave classes here in the city was expensive. That is until I found out that the dance studio where I have been taking most of my classes has an acro class, Great!! So I took last monday to try it out, Lets just say that after the class was over I was doing standing back handsprings, and roundoff back handsprings!!!!!!!!!!!

UMM YEAH TOTALLY AWESOME!!

This week in class he moved me into the power tumbling group with him, and made me perfect my roundoff backhandsprings so that I could start doing more handsprings. I also started working on my back tucks, which is just standing and jumping up and doing a back flip, they usually come after you do a tumbling pass to end it off. It's all very exciting, And everyone is pretty amazed that I am learning so quickly without ever having tumbled before. I just give all Glory to GOD. As Albert Einstein said, "dancers are the atheletes of God." So maybe He gives extra grace and strength to us. I'm just sayin.

So the other cool thing that happened Monday of this week was I got a call from Pilobolus to see if I could go to SPAIN for a gig for them, and if I could leave Wednesday(today). Umm, YEAH!!

Monkeying, for Jesus

So, as of right now this will be the first week since I got off the plane from Ok city on july 29, that I will not audition! Can you believe that. Actually the funny thing is on monday I was slated to go to 2 auditions for a new semi/broadway show(which means it is at the Lincoln Center), and GYPSY, which is currently running on Broadway right now. But I was just tired of it, so I planned on staying home and chillin out. That is until my friend Kenneth texts me, and says I should be there, so I grab my stuff and go, only to just miss the last group to go in, cause they decided to rocket thru all of the groups, and then when I got to the GYPSY call, I just really didn't feel like being there. there was alot of people, and You know they're not really looking for guys, and all the guys in the show are only on stage for a hot min, and look young, oh and are all white, so I left and went to work out. Oh well.

So last week I also Auditioned for TARZAN, and also had my callback for JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. TARZAN was a really fun combination very atheletic and of course all about being a monkey so it was very low to the ground, rolling, jumping, like an animal, and I looked really good(people told me). I felt really good doing it, I think one of the pluses I have for myself is I can portray different characters well in dance. Praise God for that. I made it all the way thru, but when the guy came out to read off who they wanted to sing, it was only one guy, which we were all totally shocked at. whatever, then they started lining the people up to sing, and then we got yelled at by the monitor saying if we're not singing to leave, (sometimes these equity monitors act like there job at that moment in time is the most important thing in life, and take it way to seriously!) So what ever I grab my stuff kiss my friends and leave. So I get a block away from the Chelsea Studios and get a call from a number I don't know, now I usually don't answer unknown numbers, but lately they have all been about some kind of work, so I did. It turns out it's my friend Will, who is at the audition still cause he got asked to sing. He proceeds to tell me that I am in the group for people they wanted to stay and sing!

"WHAT"! Yeah apparently the guy was walking around with a group of headshots of people they wanted to keep from my group, and I just happened to be on the outside, they asked to look at my pic, to call me to tell me to come back. It was absolutely crazy. Praise God I had not almost turned to get into the subway. So I run back get back upstairs in the studio, and am like whats going on. Well, the guy hadn't finished reading off the list of people they wanted to hear sing, just started moving on. It was such a disorganized audition. And then when we had to line up, I had to save someone else from not getting the info that they called his name. It was crazy. After I sang one of the artistic team asked me about being in Pilobolus, so we talked and I told him How I went to Germany, and then he's like you know Holly! and I like yeah, I love her!! It was great to connect with the team like that. Then of course the old man had to shove me out, saying I'm sorry Alfie, we're on a tight schedule. Man I swear.

Again to prove how disorganized they were, when I finally get home at 930pm I get a random call from an unknown number, asking me to come to a callback almost 12 hrs later, 10 am the next day. Gee wiz I thought.

The Callback consisted of all the same stuff, made it thru again, sang my song, saw great friends made new friends, yadda yada,

Off to my JCSUPERSTAR. It was a much smaller callback, of 13 guys, so we were really the last guys they were lookin at which felt totally cool. Now what was hard about this was the woman who choreographed it was kind of crazy in her mind, so you felt like you weren't getting the same information out of her all the time. and since she was older and her assistant was an older non dancer guy, you couldn't figure out what the full extended shapes of the movement was suppossed to be. But after learning 2 combinations, we turned to face the table of onlookers, which totally sucks I might add, especially when a combination is a traveling one to have to shorten everything, and maintian spacial awareness. We went in groups of 3. Now we had been doing the 2 dance for a while, so remembering the first dance was hard, and lets just say when I went I didn't remember all that well, and had not 1 but 2 brainfarts. Oh well I thought, I have a job, hahaha. But low and behold, I made it thru and got asked to sing! Wow, God must be all over me today! The only thing that made me feel even more sunk was hearing Her assistant from the hall way singing my song, and really singing my song. The only thing that is really cool about this musical, is that this version is being done all gospel, and they got the rights from mr weber himself to do it, so its a big deal.

So we'll see what happens.

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!!