Sam & Dean help me talk about my day

I do theatre. Have for over 16 years. I love it. But there’s one thing that makes me nervous…

Vocal auditions.

I am never nervous for auditions for straight plays (nonmusicals). Ever. But singing in an audition is consistently terrifying for me.

Today I started getting prepped for my audition… and the nerves started setting in. I started rehearsing my song at full volume in my apartment. (Luckily I have a very understanding roommate.) The only problem was, I suddenly couldn’t hit the high notes.

The more I tried, and failed to hit the notes in my song, the more panicked I got, until I was actually sitting on my bed…

Crying. A lot.

A friend of mine who was chatting with me thru the ordeal told me that it was OK, and that I should give myself permission to not go to the audition if I really didn’t want to. (Thanks, Ian! <3)

I decided that I wouldn’t be OK with myself if I didn’t go just because I was crazy nervous. So I did what any person does in this type of situation.

I ran to the corner store and grabbed a bottle of Jameson and started hitting it like a wife who’d burned dinner too many times (oooh… that’s gonna make some people mad). Then I called an uber so I couldn’t back out.

I drank more in the uber.

I had a block to walk to the theatre and was feeling pretty good, until some guy catcalled me. It was a dumb catcall, too. He overheard me telling my still-present-and-chatting friend, “My uber driver told me break a leg!” Douchey McFuckhead chimes in, “With an ass like that, you’ll break two legs!”

I said, “Oh THANKS because that’s exactly what I needed to hear to walk in this place and be successful!” Not the wittiest retort, but he did say, rather sullen, “It was meant as a compliment…”

I didn’t respond, flipped my spiritual hair and kept walking.

I flung the door to the theatre opened and the man in the lobby said, “Are you here for auditions?”
I boldly replied, “Yes!”
He said, “Auditions are at Tulane" (completely across town from where I was at the theatre).

“Oh. Right.”

So I called another uber (drank more in that one, too), went across town, and fairly killed my audition. It was quite a wild ride.

TL;DR - a friend, a few ubers, a lotta Jameson (and actually reading audition information) are all a gal needs to get over nerves for an audition!