The Audition (and I leave in 2 Days)

So I leave in 2 days. It feels so surreal that this adventure is about to begin. I sit in my room and it's not clicking that I won't see these walls, these posters, this bed, for 10 months. I won't hear my roomie gaming, or see my family for Christmas. Just weird. But I'm so excited and nervous for this experience. An experience I frankly didn't think I would get.

THE AUDITION:

April 18th I received a self tape request from my agents. It consisted of a small monologue, a dance combo, and two folders of music – one mail folder, and one female folder. I was told to pick any two songs from either folder. Spectra is a role played by actors of all genders, so there was a lot of choice in song material-which you would THINK was easy. I had 4 days to get this done. Let’s break it down.

The MONOLOGUE –

This was by far my favorite part of the audition process. The character and monologue were giving very much Frank N Furter meets The Leading Player meets the Emcee. A mysterious figure leading the audience through the different realms of time and space tip for my auditioning friends – I use an Teleprompter app when I don’t have as much time to memorize sides. It scrolls my lines as I’m recording, and I can control the speed. I highly recommend!

The DANCE CALL –

I was given a dance call to learn and record and asked to wear heels. Y’all know your girl regularly does Drag so dancing and heels is not new to me, but I don’t own dance heels. Wearing thigh high stilettos is great for one drag number, but for theatrical dancing it’s not my favorite (and unless I have $300 to drop on custom Laducas, this big footed DOLL struggles to find proper dance heels). My other obstacle was not having the funds and time to rent a dance studio. I ended up having to record this dance combo in my living room on carpet, but I did what had to be done.

The SINGING-

Even though I’ve been a singer, all my life, this was by far the most challenging part of the process. With over 12 different songs to choose from, I was finding that none of them seemed to fit. The songs in the male folder felt too high while the songs in the female folder had keys that didn’t allow my voice to soar. I spent over two days singing through different songs trying to find some thing that felt good, but to be completely honest I was feeling like a pretty crappy singer. And to add salt to the wound, I hadn’t been in a voice lesson for almost a year due to funds. I could tell that my voice was not at its most comfortable. I finally settled on Sara Bareilles’s “Brave” and “Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors , which was my go to at the time. For the latter, I chose to sing it in the key I normally did versus the key that was provided. NORMALIZE changing the keys of songs to suit your voice. I’m pretty sure this is what got me the job. I wish I could have done that with “Brave”, but I kind of just had to power through that one. Needless to say, I did not feel strongly about my vocal performance on that song and in general for this audition- so much so that I texted my agent right after submitting. See screenshot below:

I have to say this y’all- get you an agent or support group that SEES you. That truly believes in your gifts, even in the moments when you don’t. Kellie from day one has believed in me and known I was destined for greatness. That my presence is needed in this industry. I am so grateful to her.

The OFFER-

Almost 2 weeks later while sitting on my couch, wondering where my next meal was coming from or how I would pay “Rent”, I got the offer to play Spectra in Spectra’s Cabaret aboard Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas. I immediately leaked off the couch and called my agent because there must’ve been some mistake. I bombed this audition. Or so I thought you. You truly never know how you’re coming off in these auditions and what the people behind the table are seeing versus what you’re experiencing. Without ever having a live audition this casting team saw me a new I was meant for this. My agent knew I was meant for this, and while I doubted myself during the process, I realized in that moment I was meant for this.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Thank you for supporting and seeing me. I am so blessed knowing I have so many people rooting for me. And to be playing a role that allows me to be queer on stage and gender fluid, especially with the state of the world, is not lost on me. I can’t wait to take you all along with me on this journey. Until next week :-)

Dominic

PS – as a gift for reading this insanely long entry, here is my living room dance call: