It’s the nature of life that my only two auditions this past
week were at the same time. At the very least, in the same time slot. So
between 10 and 1 on Friday I had to make my way from an audition for a children’s
theatre musical in Parktown to auditioning for a presenter at CNBC Africa in
Sandton. It was quite the stretch. So I prepared the song that I was going to
sing for the theatre audition, and what I was going to say for the on camera
audition.
Being the modern girl that I am, and because we don’t own a
CD player anymore, I practiced my song by plugging in my cellphone into our
stereo and using the mp3 track stored on it. I was sure that I had the CD with
the track on in my car from a previous audition.
At my planned time I hopped into my car, and just to be sure I grabbed
the CD. It wasn’t the CD with my backtrack on it. And due to the recent move
there was a very real chance that the required CD was still residing at what is
now my brother’s flat. I ran back and grabbed all the CD’s in my reach which
had backtracks on them. I found one with a track on that I knew well enough, and
that the director I was auditioning for hadn’t heard me sing it before and climbed
into the car. The half hour drive to the audition venue was my practice time. I
arrived just before 10 and scurried into the theatre to audition. Another wide
eyed blonde looked at me when I walked in at the allotted time:
“Are you from contractors too?” Contractors is another
artist agency.
“No, I’m from Leads”
She explained that the agents were supposed to have let us
know to come and audition at a different time. The original casting call had
said we should be there at 10, but the theatre had replied to the agents giving
us all individual time slots. The three of us had not received any further
communication from our agents and had arrived at the original time. The
director, knowing that it wasn’t our fault, and been gracious enough to see us
anyway.
I walked in, as prepared as I could be all things
considered, and performed my heart out. After the song the director asked while
perusing my CV:
“You didn’t study musical theatre did you?”
“No”
“I see here that you studied drama. So did you take singing
lessons?”
“Yes”
“You sound like you studied musical theatre”
Considering how nervous I had been walking in I was so
thankful for the compliment! I was informed that I had a call back the next
week and I was off to the next audition.
The GPS took me into the heart of Sandton, and through road works,
until I reached the corporate building which houses the offices of CNBC Africa.
I drove up to the boomed gate, and filled in the paper work. When I handed back the book
the guard informed me of what I needed to do:
“Drive in, make a U-turn and come out of this gate, then enter
the next boomed gate”
As I drove in and made the required U-turn I saw that a thin
line of paving divided the parking lot into two sections. The section I was in
and was required to leave, and the section I had to re-enter via the next boom
gate. All because of the offices I would be visiting. Corporates.
As I filled in the second and third security books entering
the building, and again as I entered the offices of CNBC I noticed at least
three other names of girls who were auditioning despite not seeing anyone else.
I was hooked up, balanced for sound, and put into one of the
fanciest green rooms I’ve ever seen. And although the man I was working with
seemed to like me, and liked the fact that I write I heard that very familiar sentence:
“It all depends on what the client wants”
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