When I got to The Lion King, I realized that doing eight shows a week in a show as physical as The Lion King on an open ended run was a mix of positives and negatives. On one hand, here I am doing this amazing role, in this amazing show, telling this amazing story for 1,700 people each show. On the other hand, my knees hurt so bad I could barely take the stairs to enter and exit the subway, my voice was doing crazy things, I was newly married in a new city and I never had time to hang out with anyone or make new friends because I was exhausted.
As much as I loved performing in the Lion King, for the first time in my career I started to feel burned out, overwhelmed, tired, unfulfilled and stressed out. Isn’t that just crazy? To finally book the job of your dreams and to realize that it isn’t fulfilling you in the way you expected.
I started my career in the ensemble. And I was blissfully happy about it. I was just happy to be booked. I didn't care where they put me as long as I was on stage.
But when I booked my first principal role and I got a taste of what it felt like to hold center stage and sing a solo, or share a scene with an actor on stage… I was hooked. I wanted more opportunities to be a lead on stage, but I had no idea how to get casting directors to see me as not just an understudy or ensemble player, but as a potential lead.
In my opinion, you should just be yourself. What ever you bring naturally to the role, is what you should bring into the audition room. I’ve had the privilege of getting to sit in on some auditions for iconic roles, and even auditioned for them myself. What I’ve learned from that experience, is that casting directors (for the most part) are not interested in seeing actors mimic past portrayals of these iconic characters. They are much more interested in seeing actors become the character naturally.
Give yourself permission to play a bit. Give yourself permission to audition for these roles without limitations. Give yourself permission to be you and know that being you is goodenough.
Singers lose their voice from time to time. But why are we so afraid to talk about it? Why is vocal loss a shameful experience? What can we do as a community to change that perspective and to celebrate vocal health and support vocal healing when our comrades lose their voice?
For me personally, I experienced my scariest and most prolonged vocal loss in 2019 during Kiss Me Kate and that loss carried over into my return to The Lion King. It was terrifying. I was doing everything I could to keep my voice and nothing was working. During that time, I did not feel comfortable sharing what I was going through. I have found that most singers are not comfortable discussing vocal issues. For fear of seeming weak, or inept, or a poor caretaker of their voice.
But boy did she give me some amazing advice. Here’s what I learned. For the purpose of this blog we will call her Julie.
We work in a super competitive business. So we have to do what we can to make ourselves look hirable and awesome! There are three key things you can work on starting today that will up your actor game.
First and foremost. Get a website. Having your own website is a game changer. Julie said that casting directors and talent managers, agents even, are curious. They want to know everything they can about us.
I was a reader for a major casting agency in New York for three years. Honestly, I think I’m still on their email list, should they have need for me when things open back up again.
I learned so much as a reader. I sat in on musical theatre and theatre auditions and I learned a ton about the audition process. I studied how actors walked in the room, how they spoke to the casting director, how they spoke to me and the accompanist, how they handled direction, whether they were off book or not, did being off-book matter, and how they left the room.
Pre-Covid, actors were performing eight shows a week all across the world, not just on Broadway. Heck, I was performing eight shows a week in Chicago and on tour before I moved to New York for The Lion King. But something shifted when I got to The Lion King that made performing eight shows a week more challenging than it had ever been before.
The show was very, very physical. So I quickly realized that a health and wellness routine was the only way I would be able to achieve successful shows repetitively.
The audition waiting area is littered with distractions. It’s actually something I dread about the audition process. In a small area queued up with other actors, all vying for the same position? It’s madness! How are we ever o be successful with that kind of set up? Not to mention the other distractions that come along with that.
