Holiday Auditions!

All ready for auditions and callbacks!

Last week we had auditions for the annual Holiday Spectacular at ONU! As Musical Theater majors, we are required to audition for every show so this was my fourth and final audition for Holiday! It is extremely bittersweet and I find myself getting sentimental about every 'last' I come across, even though it is the beginning of my senior year.

My freshman year I did not get cast, which is pretty normal for freshman. Instead, I chose to be a Youth Performance Supervisor, which we call YPS for short. I was able to take care of the kids cast and help them learn the show. Doing this allowed me to still get to be a part of Holiday my first year and get to know the show and the other students outside of my class more. My sophomore year I did not get cast again which was definitely a letdown. I chose to sit that year out and not help backstage and instead get more involved in other ways on campus. My junior year I finally got cast as a singer/dancer swing. A swing is a person who learns multiple tracks at the same time and is prepared to go onstage for the tracks you cover at any given moment. For Holiday, the swings also have a track of their own so they are also onstage for some songs which can make it very complicated if you end up having to go on for someone else. Overall, it was an extremely challenging task to take on, especially when dance is my biggest weakness. Being a swing was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.

This year, I am really hoping to get moved up to a regular singer/dancer track. Because of that, I was pretty nervous going into auditions because I wanted to do my best. I sang a song from Elf the Musical and it went really well! I got a callback for Mrs. Claus and one of the singer/dancer solos. I ended up being at callbacks until 11:30 p.m., which typically would not bother me, however I had to be up at 5:30 a.m. the next morning for our class trip to Cleveland.

The next day we returned to campus around 3 p.m. and I was able to get a short nap in, which was much needed. That evening I had two dance auditions. The first one was for the dance show this fall, and even though I am not a dancer, I am still required to audition. It was a little stressful, but still fun! I got a quick break to eat dinner and then headed right back for the Holiday dance audition! It actually ended up being the best dance audition I think I have ever had, so I was really proud of myself for doing well even when I was exhausted!

A week later and we are still waiting for the cast list and I am growing very impatient. No matter what happens, I will be extremely grateful to be involved in any way. I cannot believe it is my last year but I am ready to cherish every moment that comes my way, and I can't wait to do them with my best friends by my side!

Dance auditions!