FYI, Five weeks can be a very long time. A very, very long time. I was checking my mail box with dread for weeks, just knowing I was going to get one of those: Sorry, thanks for coming but we don't want you letters. And then, came the phone call. I was surprised when I was offered not only a role, but a role as a lady in the English court like I wanted. That made me super excited! I pretty much squealed like a little girl, called everyone I know and plastered it on Facebook.
My contract came in the mail two days later. Another squeal. My mother is in Missouri for the week, but she comes back tomorrow and when she comes back and reads it over then I'm mailing it back off. Until now, it's a summer full of fixing my four dresses (blogs to come), Philipa Gregory books, and some Tudor dvds!
Friday, June 14, 2013
The Audition
As any actor knows going to an audition is a nerve racking experience. You are constantly thinking about what they are looking for, how to make yourself stand out, and to remember to break out of your comfort zone because no one wants an actor who won't try experimental things. Least to say there are usually a lot of butterflies in your stomach. This was no exception for me. I decided I was going to go to the audition about two days before it was held. So I called and made my appointment and was asked to memorize a monologue that was about two minutes and of the period. So I go around trying to find one. Naturally I pick my favorite Shakespeare play (Taming of the Shrew) and settled for Kate's monologue at the end. But I had never memorized Shakespeare before and I was slightly nervous about doing so. I have a good memory and got it down.
The day of the audition arrived and I drove the hour to the faire grounds from my dorm room. The whole way I was nervously repeating my monologue sure I over and over again. I arrived and filled out my paper work, asking to be considered for a lady in the English Court where all my historical role models lived. And then began the worst audition of my life. You think I am exaggerating, but I promise you I'm not. I've been through my share of auditions both good and bad and this is my worst one to date.
The audition started with several improve games. Not my strongest suit. I tend to try to over think improves instead of going in the moment. I can think on my feet...when I'm not trying too. We played some that were about making big actions, some that were about making a big name for yourself, and others that were much in the model of "Yes, and.." After that we did our monologues. And after all the stressing myself out over it. I completely blanked. I NEVER do that, EVER. But this time I did. Of course, as soon as I got back to my seat the end came back to me...thanks a lot mind. It only got worse from there...Then came the accents. We stood on stage and had to improve in about 10 or so different accents. I would defiantly not call accents a strong point of mine. I can do....British decently sometimes...and by the last couple accents I'm pretty sure they all sounded the same. Like a German, Scottish, British, Spanish mix of an accent. After that he thanked us for our audition, and told us it would be 4 to 5 weeks before we heard anything, and I left knowing I had just blown my chance to get in for this year.
Below is a peak at my audition. Well, I don't actually preform in the video, but I am there. I'm in the background in the red.
The day of the audition arrived and I drove the hour to the faire grounds from my dorm room. The whole way I was nervously repeating my monologue sure I over and over again. I arrived and filled out my paper work, asking to be considered for a lady in the English Court where all my historical role models lived. And then began the worst audition of my life. You think I am exaggerating, but I promise you I'm not. I've been through my share of auditions both good and bad and this is my worst one to date.
The audition started with several improve games. Not my strongest suit. I tend to try to over think improves instead of going in the moment. I can think on my feet...when I'm not trying too. We played some that were about making big actions, some that were about making a big name for yourself, and others that were much in the model of "Yes, and.." After that we did our monologues. And after all the stressing myself out over it. I completely blanked. I NEVER do that, EVER. But this time I did. Of course, as soon as I got back to my seat the end came back to me...thanks a lot mind. It only got worse from there...Then came the accents. We stood on stage and had to improve in about 10 or so different accents. I would defiantly not call accents a strong point of mine. I can do....British decently sometimes...and by the last couple accents I'm pretty sure they all sounded the same. Like a German, Scottish, British, Spanish mix of an accent. After that he thanked us for our audition, and told us it would be 4 to 5 weeks before we heard anything, and I left knowing I had just blown my chance to get in for this year.
Below is a peak at my audition. Well, I don't actually preform in the video, but I am there. I'm in the background in the red.
About Me
So I recently received the call that I will be working my first Renaissance Festival this year with the Texas Renaissance Faire. After getting the call I searched the web for what that first year will be like, and I couldn't find any results so I decided I will create a blog for future cast members to use as an example. I figured I would do a post on how I got started in the Renaissance Faire world.
My Freshman year of High School I had just moved to a new school near Joplin, Mo after a several years of living in the Boot hill where there is absolutely nothing to do. I was taking French, and my French teacher told me about a trip to the Renaissance Festival the foreign language classes were sponsoring. I jumped on it. I had read several great books in Jr High about the time period (Nine Days a Queen, Doomed Queen Anne, Beware Princess Elizabeth, Mary, Bloody Mary, Girl in a Cage you get my drift...all great historical fictions for middle school students) So I embarked on my first trip to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. I feel in love. It was like my books had come to life everywhere I looked there were people from history, Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci. We took a tour of the festival and our cast member tour guide joked about how we all must have gotten attacked by thieves on our way there because we were all in our underwear. It was at that moment I decided I had to have a costume next year.
Over the course of the next year I met two friends who were either crazy like me, or easily influenced, not sure which, but I convinced them that we should go the the ren fest dressed like peasants the next year. So we went around and begged people to create these costumes for us. I asked my Grandmother who hates to sew, and it was a good thing she loved me. These costumes were just plain awful. The sewing was fine, but we didn't know what we were doing and picked the wrong fabrics, patterns, and colors, but did we have fun. We thought we were on top of the world. We even had a story going on about how we were the daughters of a Duke with his mistress. But we had fun.
But I was not content being a peasant, so I went back to my Grandmother and asked her to help me create a noble gown. She absolutely refused. So I called my other grandmother who lived in Houston, TX and asked for her help. She agreed. I thought she was going to make the gown for me, little did I know I was wrong. I got down there with my fabric and my hours of painstaking research and she showed me how to do it. The dress was about half way done when I left to go back to Missouri, and I spent hours that summer putting in seems and ripping them back out. But I was proud of the Emerald Green Anne Boleyn inspired dress. Unfortunately, because it was the first thing I ever made there were lots of little mistakes in it, and things didn't work out the way I thought the would. But it has been a staple in my Renaissance wardrobe. It is currently going through it's fourth remodel. I will try to do a blog on it. I wore this dress to my third trip to the Kansas City Renaissance Faire. That year I also organized the Debate and Theatre departments sponsored field trip to the Oklahoma Renaissance Faire. We took a group of about 12 the first year and all of us dressed up. It was beyond fun. We were all theatre students and so we had a running story going on as we ran all over the faire. My friend Jayson pretended he was a duke, and I his beautiful sister who had fallen in love with a musician of ours who was really a thief trying to marry me to steal my inheritance before running off with this maid he love...you get the drift...but man it was so much fun. We also got teased about being part of the festival, which I thought was the bomb.And I made up my mind right then and there that one day I would be part of the renaissance festival.
That's when I started on my biggest sewing project to date. My Katheryn Howard Dress. This dress is my baby. I finished it my senior year in time to wear it to the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival where it won first price in the costume contest. I adore this dress. I make sure to wear it at least once a year, and no one looks breathes, or touches this dress but me. There are thousands of beads hand sewn on it, fur sleeves, well you understand. I'll do a blog on it later.
We moved to Texas last year, and my sister (who has become my ren fest buddy) attended the Texas Renaissance Festival. It was so much bigger than the Festivals we had attended in the past, and we feel in love. We came back a second time within the season, something we don't usually have time to do because our parents aren't crazy about the whole Renaissance Faire thing...They think we are kinda strange. We both joked about going to auditions, but we doubted we actually would. When auditions rolled around in May, I decided to go give it a try. I am a theatre student at Sam Houston University, and am always looking for a chance to improve my audition skills (I happen to suck at them.) And well..the rest we will explore together as this adventure continues.
My Freshman year of High School I had just moved to a new school near Joplin, Mo after a several years of living in the Boot hill where there is absolutely nothing to do. I was taking French, and my French teacher told me about a trip to the Renaissance Festival the foreign language classes were sponsoring. I jumped on it. I had read several great books in Jr High about the time period (Nine Days a Queen, Doomed Queen Anne, Beware Princess Elizabeth, Mary, Bloody Mary, Girl in a Cage you get my drift...all great historical fictions for middle school students) So I embarked on my first trip to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. I feel in love. It was like my books had come to life everywhere I looked there were people from history, Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci. We took a tour of the festival and our cast member tour guide joked about how we all must have gotten attacked by thieves on our way there because we were all in our underwear. It was at that moment I decided I had to have a costume next year.
Over the course of the next year I met two friends who were either crazy like me, or easily influenced, not sure which, but I convinced them that we should go the the ren fest dressed like peasants the next year. So we went around and begged people to create these costumes for us. I asked my Grandmother who hates to sew, and it was a good thing she loved me. These costumes were just plain awful. The sewing was fine, but we didn't know what we were doing and picked the wrong fabrics, patterns, and colors, but did we have fun. We thought we were on top of the world. We even had a story going on about how we were the daughters of a Duke with his mistress. But we had fun.
But I was not content being a peasant, so I went back to my Grandmother and asked her to help me create a noble gown. She absolutely refused. So I called my other grandmother who lived in Houston, TX and asked for her help. She agreed. I thought she was going to make the gown for me, little did I know I was wrong. I got down there with my fabric and my hours of painstaking research and she showed me how to do it. The dress was about half way done when I left to go back to Missouri, and I spent hours that summer putting in seems and ripping them back out. But I was proud of the Emerald Green Anne Boleyn inspired dress. Unfortunately, because it was the first thing I ever made there were lots of little mistakes in it, and things didn't work out the way I thought the would. But it has been a staple in my Renaissance wardrobe. It is currently going through it's fourth remodel. I will try to do a blog on it. I wore this dress to my third trip to the Kansas City Renaissance Faire. That year I also organized the Debate and Theatre departments sponsored field trip to the Oklahoma Renaissance Faire. We took a group of about 12 the first year and all of us dressed up. It was beyond fun. We were all theatre students and so we had a running story going on as we ran all over the faire. My friend Jayson pretended he was a duke, and I his beautiful sister who had fallen in love with a musician of ours who was really a thief trying to marry me to steal my inheritance before running off with this maid he love...you get the drift...but man it was so much fun. We also got teased about being part of the festival, which I thought was the bomb.And I made up my mind right then and there that one day I would be part of the renaissance festival.
That's when I started on my biggest sewing project to date. My Katheryn Howard Dress. This dress is my baby. I finished it my senior year in time to wear it to the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival where it won first price in the costume contest. I adore this dress. I make sure to wear it at least once a year, and no one looks breathes, or touches this dress but me. There are thousands of beads hand sewn on it, fur sleeves, well you understand. I'll do a blog on it later.
We moved to Texas last year, and my sister (who has become my ren fest buddy) attended the Texas Renaissance Festival. It was so much bigger than the Festivals we had attended in the past, and we feel in love. We came back a second time within the season, something we don't usually have time to do because our parents aren't crazy about the whole Renaissance Faire thing...They think we are kinda strange. We both joked about going to auditions, but we doubted we actually would. When auditions rolled around in May, I decided to go give it a try. I am a theatre student at Sam Houston University, and am always looking for a chance to improve my audition skills (I happen to suck at them.) And well..the rest we will explore together as this adventure continues.
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| A recent picture of me. |
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