ANNIE- Part 1

So I think every 6-10 year old girl likes to dress-up and dance, sing, put on shows etc...I remember, from about 3rd to 5th grade writing plays for my class and trying to convince my teachers to let that be our yearly class play for the parents...the answer was always NO. Instead we had to put on plays like: The little red hen, The lion and the mouse, and by the end of elementary school it was Romeo & Juliet (hard to compete with Shakespeare!) It was a great phase of my childhood, and really capitalized on where I was developmentally with pretend play.

Recently, I have noticed that both Olivia and Mary have entered this phase. I tried to put them into soccer and swimming and tennis to avoid dance and all that jazz but last term I caved and they both did their first term of ballet and tap. Since the schools don't put on plays, Stan found a KIDZ ACT group that puts on plays with just little kids and they get to dress-up and be silly together. They do one play a term (4 terms in the year) and while we were sitting in the hotel Olivia got to audition for her first play...actually first anything...she has never auditioned for anything before.

The play was Beauty and the Beast (the Broadway version). Olivia auditioned for Chip; didn't get the part and was put in the ensemble. For the audition you have to sing a song for the director and read some lines. Olivia choose to sing the song "home" which none of us had ever heard before, (because we have only seen the movie) so we learned  it in a week and she nailed it! The call back was the next week. Unfortunately for Olivia she sliced her leg open on a Friday night, stayed in the ER until 1:00am and then showed up for the call-back the next morning. She was a grump, and I am not surprised she didn't get Chip! :-)

So we thought we did ok until 1 week later, when the director emailed us an invitation to apply for an audition spot for Annie on Broadway. He said Olivia had a really strong voice in her audition at KIDZ ACT and that the Gordon Frost Organization (guys who put on Broadway musicals) had contacted him and other kids performing groups in Melbourne about submitting kids names who could apply to audition.

We were flattered and said 'OK'....but I think at the time we had no idea what kind of commitment auditioning would require. First there is the CV--you have to have (1) dance (2) voice lessons (3) gymnastics (4) and acting experience on your CV.  Since we had JUST moved to Melbourne we had none of these and we ended up spending a whole day finding these places, to enroll, just so we could put in on the CV.  I otherwise think I might have put off after school lessons until Term 2...once I had unpacked and sorted out house repairs....as now I have the run-around after school!

The second part is an audition photo. They wanted a color, full body shot of Olivia....I had no idea where a photographer was and spent another whole day Google searching photographers and driving around the area; getting out of my car and talking to studios. I quickly found out that unless I wanted to spend almost $1,000 on a photographer I was not going to get a picture taken and turned around in a week--no JC Penny type things in Australia...ugh! (which was when the application was due). Stan and I looked at each other and said "how hard can it be?" So we got out our little  SLR, put up a  bed sheet and took pictures of her ourselves.  They were OK....

The third part was having an agent submit your application. Usually a personal agent keeps you in the loop on  productions coming up that fit your part and when you get casted you pay up to 10% of your pay-out to them. Most people can't audition to something BIG without an agent....and we have no agent :-)  Luckily for us, the Director of KIDZ ACT who invited us to apply to audition knew this and offered to let us use his contact information. He also told us we wouldn't have to pay him anything if Olivia did get the part so I saw this as a Win-Win!

SO we applied....

The day after the application was due we paid for Olivia to do an Annie Workshop, where you learn what you need to know for the audition and practice Annie songs. When we came to pick Olivia up she was in HEAVEN as she had been selected to play Molly (the youngest orphan) and also got picked to sing a solo in front of the parents. There were 50 girls at the workshop and Olivia was shortlisted to top 7. Little did we know, there were some people from the Gordon Frost Organization at the workshop, even though they were not running it. I wasn't sure about paying money for this workshop since we didn't even know if we would get to audition, but then I though if we do get to audition we will be prepared and if we don't it was fun right?

So a week went by.... I was pretty sure we wouldn't be allowed to audition as every kid from KIDS ACT who applied did not hear back about their application (they only email you if you get to audition). In Sydney they auditioned 1,000 kids SO I have no idea how many application they got just to apply to audition but probably at least double...or more. Out of the 8 kids that applied to audition from KIDS ACT, Olivia was the only one that got her application approved. Later, the director told me it was because someone from GFO had probably seen her at the Annie workshop.

We were so excited! We had one week to prepare and spent the next week singing Annie songs. Stan and Olivia had seen Annie while it was in Sydney and so they knew a couple things about the play....like how the kids have to do gymnastics and the splits all over the stage.  Olivia couldn't even do a cartwheel let alone the splits, so we knew what we had to practice....

Saturday came and the auditions were CRAZY! Every 15 minutes a group of 11 girls was put through the audition process. Out of Olivia's group of 11, 2 girls were sent home because they were over 147 cm (which was the maximum height requirement), and the first round (a height check).

The second round was singing. The girls had 10 minutes with the musical director. They had to sing snippets of 'Hard Knock Life' whenever the director pointed to them. If you were off key, late or didn't know the words, you were out. Out of the 9 kids in Olivia's group, 7 were sent home after the singing round. Olivia made it through!

Next Olivia was sent to the dancing round. They started it off with cartwheels, high kicks (for the can-can) and the splits...all three ways. I am not sure how--seriously--but Olivia made it through! She was put into the next round where they learned a routine for 'never fully dressed without a smile.' This routine was in a big gymnasium and anyone who made it past the singing and gymnastics was just funneled in here. After you learned the routine you were either told to go home or go get your 8X10 black and white face shot for tomorrows call-back audition. About half of the kids were told to "go home"....Olivia made it through-

That night we practiced the dance routine until 9:00pm. Olivia was ready--there was nothing more she could do. The next morning Stan took her in for day 2... more on part 2....