Friday, November 25, 2005

Through The Fire Audition

I got a email from my girlfriend Kimberla the other day, it was a casting notice about a new musical production that Chaka Khan is putting together, it's called "Through The Fire" and I believe it's loosely based on Chaka's life. After reading the casting breakdown, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my acting coach, Sidra Smith was the casting director. So I sent Sidra an email with my photo and resume attached. She quickly replied that she would love for me to come down and then she asked if I could sing. I sent her a typical Sharon response that said "I can hold a tune...lol" and then I had to log off to run an errand out in Brooklyn. When I returned home that afternoon I got a email from Sidra saying...."Girllllll.....we need people who SAAAANNNNNG!!!!". I cannot tell you how much that tickled me, so I didn't bother to respond, I figured I'd just SHOW her when I got there. I got to the casting at about 2:30pm and it was packed....I was number 98 and they were still in the 50's when I arrived. So I took a seat where the sun was shining brightly (I like the Sun....It's rejuvenating!) and began to study my "Sides" for the role of Desire. I had prepared two songs, Dr Feelgood & Tell Me Something Good (One of your songs HAD to be a Chaka tune!) and I prepared my self to get comfortable for the next couple of hours. I ran into several people I knew, so I thought the time passed rather quickly. After several trips to the parking meter, I finally get called...they had begun calling people in groups of five at this point....at this point Sidra comes out and makes an annoucement that goes something like this:

"People, this show REALLY requires SINGERS, Really GOOD Singers....I beg you...if you KNOW you cannot sing...please do not continue to waste my time...Please!!!"

Then she looks at me, takes my hand and says "Come on Miss Lady, I want to talk to you". She takes me in the room and looks at me very seriously and asks "Can you sing?" To which I reply "Yes", she says "No, I mean can you REALLY Sing" to which I say again "Yes, I can", I can see that she is exasperated at this point because she has had to listen to really bad or mediocre singers all day long. Then she says, "Okay, you say you can sing, so I'm just gonna roll tape....do you know any Chaka tunes?" So I give her a few bars of Through the Fire to show her my range....she smiles at me and says "I didn't know you sang" and I laughed and said "I was only kidding in my email....you never asked me if I could sing" Then she asked if I had another number to sang and I did 16 bars or so of the climax of Dr. Feelgood...then she asked me to read from the sides and that was pretty much it. I was pretty happy with my audition and I hope that I get a call back...it seems like it has the potential to be a pretty good show. I haven't done any musical theater in a long time and I really miss it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Miss Runwaydiva as always ,you never disappoint an audience. If she knows talent, then the phone should ring. Love ya! Your #1 fan!!! K. :-)

Anonymous said...

If anything comes of it I will certainly be there front and center cause I KNOW you can blow, mama! LOL

-D