If you were to ask me what my hobbies are, without a seconds hesitation I would reply: singing, dancing, and acting. I have been involved in choir since fourth grade and my school's drama program for the past two years. Although I have never had dance lessons, one of my favorite things to do is to turn up the speakers on my iHome and twirl around the house trying to mimic forms of dance I have seen on shows such as "America's Best Dance Crew" and "So You Think You Can Dance." So naturally, when I heard the local theatre was having auditions for High School Musical, I practically jumped out of my skin with excitement. "What better way to combine my love of singing, dancing, and acting, than to be involved in a musical?" I thought.
Immediately after learning about the auditions, I logged onto the theatre's website to find out their requirements. I discovered we would be required to sing sixteen bars of a song of our choosing along with an accompaniment CD, and that there would be choreography we would be required to learn for the audition. My goal was to be cast as Sharpay, the blonde bombshell lead, and so I chose to sing "What I've Been Looking For," one of the songs sung by Sharpay and Ryan in High School Musical, the movie. I borrowed the accompaniment CD and spent the next three days preparing for auditions.
When audition day finally rolled around, I woke up early to make sure I was prepared. I practiced my singing audition, drank lots of water to preserve my voice and stretched in preparation for the dance audition; finally, it was time to leave. I brought my mom with me for support and focused on settling my nerves. After arriving at the theatre, I filled in the audition form, was given a number, and waited to be called into the audition room with seven other hopefuls. The audition process was not nearly as nerve-wracking as I had expected. The director, voice coach, and choreographer were all very sweet and not at all intimidating as I had expected. First, the director called each of us up for our singing audition. After our singing auditions (which I nailed), the choreographer took about fifteen minutes to teach us thirty seconds of dance choreography. Because I have never had dance lessons, I had a bit of trouble with the technical steps, but the choreographer was very encouraging. By the time we had to perform the choreography, I caught onto the steps and did well on my dance audition. Then came the moment of truth: callbacks. The director began to call the names of those who would be required to come back for a second audition. As soon as she called my name, relief swept through me. I was given a CD consisting of two songs sung by Sharpay, was instructed to learn them, and then come back the next day for a follow-up audition.
