This past week I had the opportunity to audition for one of the greatest and well known companies in the entire world! DISNEY! It was an amazing experience which I was very fortunate to get to participate in. It was a big event in my life so I wanted to share it with all 3 of you that read my blog! Clark and I rolled into the Disney wardrobe and rehearsal building at about 3 o'clock and walked in, the room was crowded! The final tally was about 300 people. The first thing we had to do was wait in a big long line where we turned in our headshot and resume, paperwork, got measured for our height, and got assigned and audition number (My number was 106) after that we just sat and stretched and just got to know a few people, I made friends with these girls named Shannon and Kala. When they called our numbers we went back in a big group (about a third of us at a time) and did a dance audition. When we were finished with that they sent us back to the waiting room (where the picture is taken place, we spent a lot of time there) to wait until they told us what to do next. After a little while they came out and called some names, unfortunately my number was not called but my friend Shannon's was! After a few minutes Shannon came back out and told us that she didn't make it to the next round. and she left with a big smile on her face. She was very positive. After that they called a few more people back, Myself and Kala included. When we got back there the 2 cast members told us we had made it to the next round and everyone whooped and hollered . What we had to then do was pretty much come up with a pantomime and perform it with a group of 7 others in front of 3 judges. We had about 5 minutes to come up with pantomime. We got to practice twice with the music than perform it once. It was really quite fun actually. I won a Pantomime competition in High School so it wasn't too difficult for me to figure something out. After we performed that they sent us back into the waiting room. When I got back in there I was shocked at how few people were still left, there were about 100 maybe? But after waiting for a while they came out and called some people back this time it included Kala but not me, a few minutes later she came out with the same news that Shannon had, she took the hard news positively as well. When I was sitting all alone waiting for what seemed like forever I made a new friend (who I don't remember her name for the life of me, we'll call her Beth.) When I sat down next to Beth, she turned to me and said that I did really well in my pantomime, I said "Thank You" and smiled, then she said "No, You did really well, I was watching you during your practice and you were the only one that I could tell what you were doing, your movements were so clear." That really made my day! (Trying to get my head out of that room was going to be hard after that compliment) The thing that stuck out to me about Beth was that she looked so much like Aurora, which was weird because they already had the call backs for the face characters, she has auditioned for Disney 3 times and each time they keep telling her she isn't what they are looking for right then but keep trying. So she does! After talking with her, they called me back again. This time, Puppets. The Cast member asked if any of us had puppeting experience, 2 out of 8 people in the room had, me not being one of them. We had a little mini workshop on how to do puppets, then we had to do our audition, for the audition we put these little eyes (made out of ping-pong balls) on our hands and had to make our hand puppets sing "Be our Guest" From Beauty and the Beast. I did really well, it was a lot of fun and I really got into it. For the last time they asked us to go sit in the waiting room again, when I got out there I was shocked to see that Beth and gone, along with 50 others, there were about 50 people left in the room, 3 times a cast member came out and called numbers, mine was not included in any of those times, finally there were about 20 people left in the room when a man came out and called about 15 people back, including number 106, me. When we went back in the room him I knew this was it, no more "call back audition" no more puppets, dancing, or pantomiming, this is when I found out if I would be working for the best entertainment division in the world. When we got to where we were going he finally spoke he said, "Congratulations!" My heart jumped! I was so excited! I had made Disney! Then he continued to tell us that, We had made it thought all the rounds and that we had "met the audition requirements to become a character performer" at Disneyworld, however at this time they did not have an opening for us at that time. There was total silence for about 3 days, I didn't know whether to be excited or cry, he told us that we would be put into a pool and when a position opened up that was right for us, he would call us. I was happy that I had made it that far. I'm still hoping that they call me, but who knows, maybe they will, maybe they wont. When I walked in the waiting room to go back to the car there were about 5 people still waiting, and some parents and friends, but about 5 auditioners, I'm pretty sure they were the 5 who had their dreams come true. When I got to the car I had a mix of different emotions, I was Happy for it to be over, Sad I didn't make it, exhausted from all that work, and hungry because I hadn't eaten all day. When i got to the car it was 8 o'clock. 5 hour audition. That was the longest audition of my life. Yet, It was one of the most relaxed, enjoyable, and fun auditions of my life. Even though I didn't get the role I was looking for I learned a lot, I made new friends and got some self satisfaction from making it so far. I keep look forward to what the future has to offer and look back on past experiences with an eye of gratitude for the lessons leaned.
