The Ingénue Entrevoir (or part 2 of Soprano Shuffle)

Passing an early morning Baltimore Harbor on the way to NYC. Dare I say that the rising smog is almost pretty?

For part one, please see the Soprano Shuffle.

Day two in NYC and this day I have an advantage; waking up early in the city. The night before I checked the equity rules for EPAs, and gathered that the monitor would be there one hour before the audition to make appointments. The audition didn't start until 10am, so I planned to be there at 9am, and felt confident I would have my pick of audition appointments.

WRONG!

What I did not look up what what time the building opened. Apparently people had been lining up since 8:30a, so that by 9am, there was a line of auditionees snaking around the waiting room. From the length of the line I knew that I would not get an appointment and also knew I would not even get a promising alternate number. I also knew that if I waited to sign up for an alternate number, I would miss my guaranteed spot at audition #2, for Mary Poppins National Tour, 15 blocks away.

At Mary Poppins, it was poppin. (har har.) RE: Do you know what 200 women in a sweaty holding room is like? Not glamorous at all. To compare, next door was the non-equity audition for Beauty and the Beast, which must of had at least 300+ women in it. I'm talking packed - everyone sitting on the floor, each inch of space crammed with girls and all their bags, dance attire, and coats.

I was decently early in the day to audition, but had the chance to sit with a really nice girl...and her two daughters, aged 6 and 9! They were very refreshing and asked me questions like, "Do you have a friend?" When I said that I did not in fact know anyone friendly there, they offered to be my friends. They also asked, "Do you want to be Mary Poppins?" and I responded that I'm sure every woman in the room wanted to be Mary Poppins. I was so happy to make my first NYC audition friends, even though they are still in Elementary School.

Moving right along to audition #3, I found myself in another judgement call. Noisy, crowded, and supremely disorganized, I turned on my heel and left. Just didn't have the patience! I feel I have the right to be selective with my energy, and this was not worth the 3 hour wait with annoying 19 year olds.

With the threat of impending snow, I took a chance and hopped on a 12:30p bus home. Good thing I did that because I later came to find out that my original bus was cancelled and I would have been stranded in the city.

So there you have it. Out of six planned auditions, I only did two. I went to all of them, but the city was so crowded with people out of work, I could not be seen. Just gotta be there to be competitive and get to sign ups at 8:30! So much faster paced than home, that is for sure.