For those of you who have been fortunate enough to participate in the rigorous process of auditioning for theatrical productions, I must applaud and commend you for your efforts.
For those of you who have been
Let me paint a little picture for all of you non-thespians out there.
You walk into a room and are seated (or left standing in the back) until your number is called. 
When your number is called, you approach the center of the room. You are asked to stand on the "X". You approach and stand there. Dear reader, this is the moment in which I typically feel the urge to urinate in my trousers. In front of you is a long row of tables. The people seated at these tables are the directors, choreographers, vocal directors, etc. of the shows for which you are auditioning. You are given 3 minutes to sing your heart out for theses people. 
You might be asked to read or perform some dialogue from a show. When your time is up, you proceed to a dance audition. At this point, a routine of approximately 1 minute is taught in about 15-20 minutes. You spend most of those 15-20 minutes stepping on and cursing the people around you. Don't they know you're a star and you need your space? #amateurs. You are then put into smaller groups to perform the choreography.
When you have finished performing, you DO NOT MOVE and your number better be on your shirt. The directors write down notes while you are standing there. You keep smiling, and finally, you are dismissed. You gather your belongings, silently cursing yourself: "Damn it! Why didn't I go for the big note at the end!?", "I really should have gone for the double pirouette.", "Did I totally suck?" You then wait days or weeks to find out if you got a callback or were cast in a show. Callbacks are their own brand of beast and deserve their own blog post. I will spare my dear readers from that one.
But you know what? At the end of the day, it's all worth it. The sweating, the nerves, grown adults feeling the need to wet their pants...
Why?
Because at the end of the day, you get to dress in sparkly, gold lame'.
You get to struggle putting on fake eyelashes...
You might get to portray a dancing hoodlum
Or a semi-irritating-oddly-optimistic orphan
Or a Beast
Or an ogre
Or a Princess (squeal!)!!
Or a tree...
But who cares if you're a tree?! You might get to dance in a jail cell one day...
And at the end of a long day at work, who doesn't love to grand battement with their closest friends?!
And being in musicals is your outlet for expression!
And when you're up on that stage, you just KNOW you look like a saucy little vixen...
(even though you might really look like...)
And the smell of the greasepaint is intoxicating...
And your second family is your theatre family...
And the feeling of being in front of the lights and a huge audience? That's the best feeling of all.
To all of you auditioning in the near future...this is for you.
Break a leg. And you better #werk.
Godspeed.
Break a leg. And you better #werk.
Godspeed.
If you live in the Central Illinois area, you can find out more about auditions and performance opportunties by visiting:
The Springfield Muni Opera
Hoogland Center for the Arts
Springfield Theatre Center
The Legacy Theatre
Theatre in the Park
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