Theatre in the Real World

Our audition was last week! Here is how our few days went:

On Thursday Victoria, my dad, and I drove to Philadelphia. We were very excited because the car my dad rented had the number 11 in the license plate. For those of you who don't know, 11 is my lucky number, as well as a number that comes up a lot in my family.

We also made two CD's of all of our favorite Disney songs to sing during the drive. Luckily my dad enjoys Disney songs just as much (if not more) than we do!

We went to sleep that night very excited for our audition but also feeling so so happy that the outcome almost didn't matter in a way because we are going to be working for Disney in the fall regardless of whether we are characters or not.

As you know from reading this blog, what I ultimately want to do is be in parades and shows (or do voiceovers, but that's a different part of the company), and we can't audition for those until we are down there.

We got to the audition and there were SO MANY people in the room! I could NOT believe it. On the Disney Auditions website they said there was an audition for the cruise line that day but I was under the impression that it was separate from the college program auditions. We learned that I was wrong. They were going to be auditioning us together. This was a bit confusing because we didn't know how they were going to be able to tell if you were for the cruise line or for the college program but we figured they must have a way to tell. While in line we had to fill our the audition sheet. Luckily Victoria and I brought our headshots and resumes which they accepted if you had them.

After waiting in line for almost an hour, we approached the table where there was a cast member waiting for us to sign in. We signed in and were given a number. Mine: 164, and Victoria's: 165. After signing in we immediately went to another cast member who measured us. My height measurement was 5'3.5". Having known enough people that have worked for Disney, we knew just how important height is to be a performer. To keep the integrity of each character, the actor portraying them has to look just all the other people. This is why everyone wears the same wigs, makeup, and costume. And to be honest, this is one of the things that makes Disney so different from all the other theme parks.

After getting our numbers, and height measurements, another cast member took our picture and we had to wait in the middle of the room. As you can see we were very excited...

While we were sitting and waiting for the rest of the people to be signed in we realized our numbers were more special than we thought. Again, mine was 164 (1 + 6 + 5 = 11!!!!) and Victoria's was 165 (16 - 5 = 11!!) You could probably figure out any set of numbers to be 11 if you really wanted but we thought this was special :D

In case you're wondering, we didn't realize we were wearing the same color shirt until we were at the audition...

So after waiting another 15 minutes or so after we checked in, the cast member who signed us in stood up and told us that because they had so many people auditioning they had to do a type cast first before they could start the audition. Uh oh. This is not good, what a type cast is is they look at all the people who are auditioning and take them out of the running based on type. This type can waver based on what they are looking for at the audition. However, since Disney is so largely based on height, we knew it would be a height typecast and knowing that, we also knew that at least one of us would not be able to audition.  This being because if they chose 5'3", I would be able to audition, but not Victoria, if they picked 5'6", she would and I wouldn't, and worst, if they chose any other height, neither one of us would be able to audition.

What they did was have everyone leave the room and then they called us in in groups of 60. Once we were back in the auditioning room they had us stand in rows of 10 in the back of the room and taught us a moving "routine" (which was essentially marching) and we moved toward the judges. After everyone in the room had gone the cast member stood up and announced who should stay for the audition and who should go. She started by saying that if this is what you really want to do you have to come back, because you never know what they're looking for and at each audition they are looking for different things. Then she called out numbers, she called Victoria's but not mine.

I was so so happy that one of us made it! Although I wish I would have been able to do the audition, what I really want to do I can't until I get down there, so it didn't really matter what the outcome was. Victoria said when she got into the room to audition they asked to make lines, in the front if you were 5'0" and in the back if you were 5'6". They were looking for people to be friends with Mickey and Minnie or 5'6" dancers for the cruise line. It's comforting to know that there was nothing I could have done to change the outcome (unless I could magically grow 2 inches of course!)

My sister and I talked a lot about how exciting it was that we already knew we would be working for Disney in the fall. Imagine how it must have been for all the people that came to the audition and weren't able to even go in the room knowing this was their chance to work for Disney? We were so so happy that we could go to the audition knowing that we are going to be working for them regardless of the outcome.

Overall, the experience was really fun! And I learned not to audition for the cruise lines since all the dancers aboard are 5'6"!

I'm still reading my Disney book and will post soon more interesting Disney facts. Until then, remember that "all our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."