A Cautionary Tale: Last Minute Changes

Do as I say, not as I do! That is the lesson to be learned through the Cautionary Tales -- I make these mistakes so you don't have to. Here's my tale about making changes to your audition last minute.

I was hopping between two equity audition holding rooms at Pearl Studios, hoping to be seen for at least one by the end of the day. It was looking promising as both started calling from the non-equity lists around the same time, barely halfway through the morning! The auditions were for a new biopic off-Broadway show and for an adaptation of a beloved story coming to Broadway. Some exciting, major projects! Both were asking for song cuttings in similar styles, so in my preparation in days prior, I had settled on one song for both auditions. Certainly made life easier for me: only one song to worry about, and I could knock out two auditions with it.

As this was fairly early in my NYC auditioning journey, I was still unclear on the differences between ECC and EPA (which we talked about last week -- ECC is Equity Chorus Call and EPA is Equity Principal Audition -- more info about them on that post!), so I didn't know that I could have a longer cutting for the Broadway audition. I had prepared a 16-bar cutting of my song, but upon hearing that that audition was asking for a "brief cutting" (meaning around or even over a minute), I was determined to make an adjustment. Because I couldn't pass up singing more for a Broadway audition, right? So because the non-eq list was moving fast and it looked like I would be seen in that room first, I set up camp in that holding room and set out to recut my song.

I decided the easiest change would be to simply add in the third verse of my song before going into my original cutting of the final chorus. The problem was I wasn't totally comfortable with the lyrics of the third verse -- on any other verses, actually. So I dropped everything I was doing and read through the new cutting over and over and over again, cramming the unfamiliar lyrics into my brain.

Ready or not, my name was eventually called. I was feeling pretty good, the cramming session being so "fresh" and the new cutting the only thing I was thinking about. So I handed my headshot and resume to the monitor, got on line, and followed my group to the hallway outside the audition room. Once on line, two Heidis were battling with each other: the logical one that had a sinking feeling about trying something new with zero forethought in a Broadway audition, and the stubborn one that was determined to show as much range as possible in a Broadway audition.

Ultimately, the stubborn one was victorious, but I think you can guess where this is going.

I got in the room, explained the cutting to the accompanist, gave my slate, and waited for my starting note. As soon as I heard my starting note, all thought left me, and I stared like a deer in the headlights. And the icing on top of the cake is the fact that my first few words were not on the page where I was asking the accompanist to start; my starting lyrics were on another page as the music directs the musician to go back to the beginning following a coda, meaning when I had to profusely apologize for forgetting the words before I even began, the accompanist couldn't help me because he couldn't find the starting words in the music.

Needless to say, I was happy to leave that room when I finally finished my audition. Luckily, I didn't forget any other words once I had the beginning of the phrase and the casting director was polite about it, but I was absolutely horrified. I did go back to the off-Broadway audition in a desperate attempt to salvage my day, and regardless of what the room was asking for, I was determined to only sing my prepared 16-bars, period. And what do you know, I did really well in that one.

So! What have we learned from this experience?

Repeat after me: BEWARE OF LAST MINUTE CHANGES. Sure, this is an extreme case -- I didn't know the rest of my song so of course it didn't go well. So you may be thinking, "I know the rest of my song! Can I add to it?" or "Mehhhh I'm not feeling this song today, let's switch it up!". In those cases, I will simply say let my misstep be a lesson. We prepare for a reason (and granted, everyone's preparation methods look different), and throwing a wrench in the gears when you definitely should NOT be worried about what words come next in the audition room? You're not doing yourself any favors. If it means walking into an audition with less than they ask for or maybe not quite the right song? At least you'll walk out knowing you were able to show off your self-discipline.

Thanks for reading, #DreamTeamHLJ, and do yourself a favor: learn the entire song.