I've Come a Long Way, Baby....

I'm still chuckling over this....and that's more than a good thing!  It's a liberating thing.

On Friday, I had my very first musical theatre audition since, oh...high school.  I've been singing with a private vocal coach for 11 months now and was amazed I was called in for this particular show, given they specifically asked for experienced musical theatre performers, but so be it! I got the audition and was very excited.  I had two days to prep and decided to get my song book together in the order of songs I would perform.  This meant rearranging some of the pages, which I did and felt all ready and raring to go.

Friday a.m. I am all full of gunk in my throat, so I make a big thermos cup of mint tea with honey to take with me.  Take a big gulp and burn my tongue.  Okay.  I can deal with that.  No biggie.  I won't be able to taste food for two days, but I can still sing.

I trek to the audition - far from my apartment, cross-town, 3 subway trains later, lots of walking - but got there on time, ready to go.  I was getting the chance to audition, to sing!  Still excited.  Listen to some of the women before me and I'm pretty sure we're not auditioning for the same character so no intimidation there.

Go into the theatre - cute small theatre, black box.  Acoustics seem pretty good.  Give my book to the pianist, mark the tempo with him, say hi to the auditors who are very nice and attentive.  Start my song at the bridge.  As I go into the verse, the pianist jangles to an abrupt stop.

"Is there supposed to be a key change here?"

Wha?  I was very confused.  No.  After a bit of back and forth where I said I just sang from this book right before Christmas and there is no key change, a light bulb dings......I changed the pages in my book.  Oh, yes, I changed the pages in my book and frakking picked up the first three pages in the correct key and mistakenly picked up the last page in the original key.  Which is too high.

And this is where it gets different.  Instead of freaking out, getting down on myself, falling into despair, beating myself internally to a pulp....I started to laugh.  Outright.  And loud.

There was a man recording the auditions and he commented "Guess you made your mistake for 2012?" to which I agreed and raised my hands up over my head, taking a bow, still giggling.

The director asked me to finish the song in the wrong key, which I did and completely popped the top note, but you know what?  I didn't care.  I did my best and I learned a crucial lesson:

No matter what you do, if you give it your best, it's right for that moment. 

I genuinely was prepared and ready for my audition, but even with the best of intentions, sometimes things just go wrong.  And when they do, don't despair -- learn.  I finally think I understand what my career coach Dallas Travers means when she says "Seek failure."  Yes.  If you give it your all and it doesn't work out, it doesn't mean anything except information to use for next time.  Amen, sister!

No, I didn't get the part!  And yes, I changed the sheet in my song book to the correct key.  And now I'm ready for the next audition with a smile on my face.

And some residual giggles.