Now, we’re off and running.
One kid is already asleep in the back, and the car is on cruise control. I can see a few turns up ahead, but for now the road looks pretty straight, so we can relax for a little bit. That’s right, this past weekend down here in CYT San Diego Central, we held auditions for all of our Winter shows for 2010….well all but one. Willy Wonka is the winter show of our Tri-City area, but because of a conflict they pushed their auditions back to this Thursday (I think I heard it had something to do with fizzy lifting drinks). Anywho, let me tell you how things went for us, because I know you might not have been there. If you were, great job and congrats! Friday night, Pacific Standard Time, we all met at Torrey Pines Christian Church (the site of our classes for Central) for the very exciting auditions of Sleeping Beauty. We’ll be visiting this same spot many times because this is also where we’ll be having all of our rehearsals until we move into the theatre in a month or so. Excited to see the kids audition, I pulled up, unloaded my keyboard, and got it set up for our great audition accompanist, Luke Nelson. Now for those of you who are not familiar with auditions, or might want to audition for next time, you can either bring a recording (CD, or tape) of a karaoke version of your song, or you can bring sheet music for the audition accompanist to play. (An important side note for those of you planning on pursuing performing as a profession: EVERY professional audition ONLY allows sheet music.) I mosey on over to our audition table and am immediately glad to have girls on our artistic team.
Why, you ask?
Now before you go making judgments, I say that because not only did each of us have a pencil, water bottle, and paper already sitting for us on the audition tables (thanks Tanya) but Joy Allen our choreographer, brought some little treats from her recent trip to Turkey (She pretty much has seen the entire planet…..within the last year) and on top of that, there were also little Hershey’s kisses in a bowl along with some other assorted candies all just for us! I’m just saying if it were an all guy directing team, we probably would have had none of those things, so I’m thankful for the “Sleeping Beauty beauties” as I’m calling them. We get ourselves situated, I enjoy a piece of chocolate, and ever-so-promptly the clock strikes four-thirty, and the kids come in, ready to perform. 
Above: The first group of audition kiddies waiting to sing and dance their hearts out.
Throughout the halls of the church “That’s Entertainment”, “One Short Day” and many other one-minute masterpieces echoed, followed by very supportive howls of wolf-like support. Some danced, some sang and one even performed an old Danny Kaye monologue which brought a smile to everyone’s face. After all 57 of our great auditioners had finished sellin’ it, they all headed home while we, the artistic team, got to stay behind for an hour or so to create the callback list for the next day. 
Left to Right: Becca Downing (Intern Director); Sarah Brown (Asst. Director); Joy Allen (Choreographer); Paul Russell (Director); Myself (Musical Director)
What’s a callback list? Simply the list of numbers (each auditioner wears a number) that we need to stay after the dance auditions the next morning for callbacks. Now, some people get really disappointed if they don’t get a callback, but more often than not the directors might already have a specific part in mind for you and they don’t think anyone else can do it as great as you can. This means that instead of a call-back, they just….give you the part! Bottom line, if you don’t get a callback, it’s not always a bad thing, and it certainly DOES NOT mean you’re NOT in the show. With the callback list done, we pack up and head home for the night planning on meeting back at the church in the morning for my favorite part of the casting process: callbacks. Stay tuned for the “Callbacks” entry appearing tomorrow on this very same website. ~
HEY EVERYBODY, TIME FOR AN IDAHO UPDATE! ~
That’s right, it’s time for our first of many; it’s time to check in with our dear friends up in North Idaho who will be performing Sleeping Beauty at the same time as us down here in San Diego. The same Friday when we had our San Diego auditions, they had their auditions all the way up in Idaho, and apparently they went really well! Here’s an e-mail I got from the Executive Director of CYT North Idaho, Bliss Lanier:
“Dear Paul and Taylor, Well, we cast 77 kids out of 97. About 23% were new kids; we only had 16 boys (only 6 were teens) audition. We have a variety of sizes in our fairies although we could have cast all around 4’7″ which is how I pictured fairies in my head! Thanks for the work put into the play to have 13 fairies, guys. How fun to cast girls as fairies (pretty meaty roles for each of them) who have either only been chorus or dancers before! Have a restful Sunday and as Taylor has said “we’re off” again on Monday!
Love, Bliss”
HEY EVERYBODY, THAT’S THE END OF THE IDAHO UPDATE! ~
Make sure to check back tomorrow for a follow-up entry about Dance Auditions, and my favorite part of casting: Da Callbacks. See you then Taylor
cool