Whenever I go home and visit my old music teachers and friends, they all ask expectantly, “Are you auditioning?”

Every time they ask, I offer up my standard line: “I am writing and producing my own material, as opposed to spending time performing someone else’s work.” Or something like that.

Even though I have that line, there are plenty of times I feel like I ought to be auditioning. I mean, what kind of New York musical theatre performer can I be without the regular audition to kvetch about?

In producing Episodes 8 and 9, however, I am happy to say that I was able to get my first taste of the New York audition experience — albeit on the other side of the audition table. Now if and when I start auditioning in the City, I’ll have some valuable insight to help me through. Four insights, to be exact:

1. Being a full-time actress is the hardest thing in the world.

Every person who has considered a performing career knows the odds of getting regular paid work aren’t good. With acting, you hear all the horrific statistics. My theatre teachers at Interlochen told our class of eager, young musical theatre performers that 92% of actors are out of work at any one time. For me though, the number never registered until I posted my first casting notice on Backstage.com, looking for a young woman in her early twenties to play Amy’s New Roommate and a middle-aged caucasian lady to play Amy’s Mother.

As I released the notice, I was not prepared for the onslaught of talent that applied to be a part of 59 Days. As over 400 emails piled into my inbox over the next two days, I finally started to understand just how impossible this industry really is. The vast majority of responses came from Amy’s New Roommate candidates – most of them boasting impressive resumes, beautiful headshots, and all willing to put in a days worth of work for $50.00. Of the mothers, on the other hand, only some 20 women applied. I was shocked at the difference in numbers. Either women in their 40s through 60s were not interested in webseries work – or more likely, relatively few actress were able to stick it out long enough to have a midlife career.

Another thought also depressed me as I sorted the headshots. Mandira, our 59 Days in New York director, and I had already decided that we would only call back 20 women because we could only afford to rent an audition room for two hours. With 20 women to see, I was sad to realize only 5 percent of the 400 would even get a call back. If this was the reality of my low-budget webseries, I could only imagine what the odds must be like for theatre gigs, television ads, or God forbid, big budget movies.

2. Sometimes, the unexpected person is the perfect fit!

Amy's Mother | 59 Days in New York — Amy’s Mother calls in Episode 8.

Narrowing down 400 women to just twenty candidates was no easy task. But on audition day, making the final selection was even trickier. We had excellent candidates for the New Roommate and Amy’s Mother parts – all friendly, professional, and talented.

At the end of seeing all our scheduled candidates, however, there was still one blonde woman sitting in the hall, carefully not looking at us. We had ten minutes to spare in the rented room — and wanting to get our money’s worth, Mandira and I awkwardly asked if she would like to audition for the part of Amy’s Mother.

Luckily for us, the blonde woman in the hall turned out to be an improv teacher — and not only was she game to audition, she was fabulous! After she kept us laughing hard through the whole audition, we knew she was the right mother for 59 Days.

Coincidence, or some Dolly Parton magic, I know not…

3. Looks matter – but not in the way you think!

One of the things that weirded me out during the audition process was realizing that looks mattered. Even stranger, it was how the person looked compared to me that made a difference. In casting Amy’s mother, we had more constraints in the appearance department. But even for Amy’s New Roommate, looks were a big consideration.

For the New Roommate character, I primarily wanted a person who had a “wide eyed” feel, much like Amy at the beginning of the webseries. Apart from that criteria, I left the casting call open to all types of young women. Secretly, however, I wanted to cast a woman who would physically contrast Amy. The contrast, I hoped, would suggest that the 59 Days in New York experience was not just for Amy alone (or even women like Amy), but built on more universal themes. In my head, that nixed a lot of the white, blonde young women with medium-length hair from the list of 400, even if the posting didn’t specify it.

On the audition day, the same concerns about looks returned. “She was fantastic,” I would say, but then Mandira would point out that the same talented actress did not visually pair as well with me as another.

Going through 59 Days, I understand better why my old acting teachers used to say: It’s not all about your talent or even your looks. Sometimes, it’s about looking good compared to the person next to you.

4. If you don’t hear from the casting director, please don’t take it personally.

I remember in 7th grade when I had just moved to a new city and went to my second casting call at the local community theatre. I gave a pretty decent audition, my 7th grade self thought. And, since I had already gained a reputation for my voice in my last hometown, I was sure I was a shoe-in.

But weeks went by, and I didn’t hear anything after the audition. I was devastated. I cried to my mother, “At least they could tell me ‘no.’ That would be so much better than waiting and never hearing.”

Knowing what that felt like, I wanted to write to the people who auditioned for 59 Days and tell them personally that we had chosen another actress. Yet, in the days following the audition, I went straight into recording tracks and filming. There was hardly enough time for me to notify the people that we cast!

I’m sure these women are hardened professionals and scarcely noticed my poor correspondence skills. But to my 7th grade self and that part of me who might still feel a little bit, in her heart of hearts, the same way today, I just want to encourage some understanding. The person behind the casting table is human too. Please forgive her!

Of all the 59 Days in New York episodes I have released so far, episode 6 has gotten the most polarizing reactions — at least from the few team members and sponsors who have watched the rough cut.

The opinions divide into two camps. For Camp A, episode 6 is not their favorite – it’s too slow, it lacks humor, and it’s a surprising departure from the previous episodes. Camp B loves this episode – it feels realistic and sincere, the timing works well, and it shows good character development for our lead woman, Amy.

As the creator of the show, I’ll admit these two disparate views make it difficult to gauge the success of the piece. It also makes me wonder about the tone, pacing, and character development of the series going forward. But most of all, it makes me want to explain the creative decisions that went into creating it.

So please bear with me! And if you are especially wonderful, leave a comment about your thoughts on the episode after reading:

Forgetting Musical Theatre Lyrics

So far in 59 Days in New York, we’ve seen Amy arrive in New York, find an internship, and start working. But we haven’t seen Amy as an artist, even though that’s the very reason she’s in NYC. Now that Amy has finally “settled” in her snug apartment, I wanted to give her a chance to sing as a singer-songwriter and not as a character in a musical.

With that in mind, I knew her song would need a different treatment. Amy’s personal songwriting creations couldn’t sound like the musical theatre songs of the previous episodes. Amy, after all, is not a musical theatre composer or lyricist, and so I didn’t want her lyrics to sound too polished or specific to the story. I needed to think simple.

Simplicity, as it turns out, is the hardest thing of all to produce. Many failed song attempts later, a friend of mine suggested I write filler lyrics that created a mood and sounded good, rather than focus on writing lyrics that made sense.

“Think about the Beatles,” my friend said.

Thankfully, that idea freed me up enough to finally write the lyrics for “Brown Brick and Grey,” and start focusing on the episode’s structure.

Episode 6 screenshot, 59 Days in New York — Amy getting creative while eating porridge in episode 6.

Changing Up the Musical Structure

In episode 6, you’ll notice there’s no big song number. Rather, the same song appears in three different iterations – first as a piece Amy sings on her vlog, then as background music, and finally as a duet.

I opted for this fragmented approach because, while I did want Amy to share one of “her” songs, I also didn’t want this musical performance to be the only piece in the episode (see continued discussion below). When I started brainstorming, I thought it would be interesting to have the same song recur throughout the episode. Within the webseries, this meant we would be able to change the common episode structure of “first story, then song.” Musically, it meant we could play with the instrumentation for each of the iterations. And finally, it also meant we could play with the role of the music in the story. More on that in the section below…

In real life, people don’t burst out singing to express themselves.

Remembering Musical Theatre Conventions

In every musical theatre or opera class I took, there always came a point when the professor reminded us: In real life, people don’t burst out singing to express themselves. As a person who regularly sings to sort out her feelings, I always thought that was a rather limiting statement about reality. But the point always led to interesting discussions on how writers treat singing in a musical (or an opera, like Carmen).

Most well-recognized musical theatre composers use the song as a vehicle to forward the plot/increase our understanding of the character’s internal life/etc. But, there is also a long tradition of musicals where the characters perform to perform – think “The Lonely Goatherd” in The Sound of Music or “Bill” in Show Boat. In many modern shows like Glee or Smash, or musical movies like Pitch Perfect, the majority of the songs fall in the second category. The characters are singing because that’s what they do in the story. We are witnessing them in the act of performing — the way we see people sing in real life.

Coming back to 59 Days, I wonder if the overt musical performance in episode 6 is what makes the people in Camp B say the episode feels more realistic. Does the fact that Amy sings the way you see normal human beings sing make her more relatable? Is it the role of the music that creates such polarizing feelings? If you have insight, please let me know!

For people who feel like they belong to Camp A, don’t worry. In episode 7, we’re returning to a more traditional structure, complete with country music and sequins. There will be many more comic, up-tempo moments to enjoy, I promise. But for now, I hope you watch episode 6 with open eyes and ears!

Regardless of whether you’re in Camp A or Camp B, leave me a comment on the episode, and let me know how you felt we did playing with some old musical theatre questions.

Category: Blog Post

Four Lessons from a Newbie’s First New York Audition