Captivated

First Steps First

Oh my goodness, this weekend was stressful, not gonna lie haha. I'm hoping this school week is going to be an easy one- choir field trips on two days! I hope you all have a nice week, too! Here's a cheeky little update to end your weekends with. Comment and vote xxxx
-ab

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May 5, 2025

Harper

"You're Harper?" a tall lady who is probably in her forties asks me.

"That's me," I smile at her.

"Wonderful. I'm Sarah, and I'll be your audition coach for the next few days."

"Perfect," I smile at her. "Thank you so much."

She leads me into her studio, which appears to be slightly like a dance studio, with barres and mirrors, but it also has a piano and a pile of music stands and chairs in the corner.

"Go ahead and grab a stand. You're only wanting music help today, not dance help, correct?"

"That's correct," I tell her. "I'm not big into dance-heavy roles... I'm just a 'mover,' really."

"Understandable," Sarah laughs. "Let's just do some vocalizing to begin with, and we can hook you up with some music from there. Probably three musical theatre pieces and three pop or rock tunes, if that sounds good."

"It sounds perfect," I reply.

"Do you have anything in your book already?"

"I auditioned for Les Mis with 'Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again' from Phantom of the Opera."

"Lovely," Sarah replies, pulling her long, brown hair back into a ponytail as she sits down at the piano. "And you booked that Les Mis job, correct?"

"Yes, I did," I tell her, with a giant smile. It still makes me so happy to say that I'm in the show. I dreamed about it for many years prior.

"Great... Cosette, if I'm correct, so that'll put you as a light, lyrical soprano voice type. Correct me if I'm wrong with the assumption that you don't have a lot of belt?"

"True," I laugh.

"That's okay. We can work with that. Let's get some warmups going, then I'll go pull you some music, okay?"

"Great," I reply. Then, we move into some lip trills, then scales and arpeggios.

"Alright, I think I have a few pieces that I'm going to get you," she says, leaving the room.

After about ten minutes, Sarah re-emerges with a packet of music. "This is all yours to keep. Go ahead and flip through... let me know if you aren't familiar with any of the songs. These will be the full songs, and I'm going to pick out your 32 bar cuts in a few days. It's best to just learn it all now."

I thank her, accepting the sheet music, then look at the first three pieces: musical theatre songs. They consist of "In My Own Little Corner," from Cinderella, "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," from My Fair Lady, and "In My Dreams" from Anastasia.

"I know and love all of these," I remark.

"Wonderful," Sarah tells me. "What about the pop/rock songs?"

The first pop/rock song brings a smile to my face. "Did you know that Taylor Swift is my favourite singer? And one of my best friends?"

"Wait, seriously?" Sarah asks me. "That's so crazy."

"Yeah," I giggle, staring back down at the sheet music for "Safe And Sound."

The next song in the packet makes me laugh, as it gives me a flashback to my childhood, and hearing my dad play Carly Rae Jespen's "Call Me Maybe" around the house, though my mum and I didn't quite know why he fancied it so much.

"I know, it's a bit of a silly pick, but I believe that it'll suit your voice nicely," Sarah tells me.

Finally, I find the music to "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri.

"So, how are you feeling about the choices? Do you know them all?" Sarah asks me.

"Yeah," I nod.

"Perfect. So... can we just dive right in?"

"I don't see why not," I laugh. "Which one should we start with?"

"Let's start on the Taylor Swift one, since you seemed excited about it."

"Gotcha," I say, shuffling the papers around until I have only the necessary music on my stand, and the rest sitting on a chair next to me. Sarah begins the piano introduction, and I open up my mouth to sing.

"I remember tears streaming down your face when I said I'd never let you go..."

I sing through, and after that, Sarah gives me a few pointers, to which I diligently mark the sheet music.

After that, we decide to just sing through all of the pieces, instead of picking apart one. On the remaining five, I stumble through and get pointers.

"If you have time to practice tonight, then that's great, but I understand that you have a show, so if that isn't possible, then I totally get that, too," Sarah tells me. "After Thursday, though, you are going to have to put in effort on your own time, just so that you can keep everything that we work on fresh in your memory."

"Of course," I reply. "I'll try to put in some work this afternoon before I head to the theatre, though."

"Great," Sarah replies.

"Do you want to be paid every day individually, or should I pay you on Thursday?"

"Your manager already took care of payment."

"Really?" I ask, taken aback. "Wow, that was nice of him."

"He wants you to do well in these auditions," she laughs. "It looks really good on the management company when their clients book jobs."

"I suppose that's true," I laugh. "I didn't have an audition coach when I did my Les Mis audition, because I was still actively taking voice lessons at that point. I can't seem to squeeze them regularly into my schedule anymore, though."

"That's understandable," Sarah tells me. "Lots of people say that they aren't able to after booking a professional gig. Make sure you continue to try to squeeze them in, though. They're important."

"I know," I tell her. "I do try."

"Good," she replies. "Well, I have another client I need to prepare for, but I'll see you tomorrow?"

"For sure," I say. "Bye."

"Bye," she tells me, giving a little wave as I walk out of the building.

Even though I know that the chances of me getting any of these initial five roles that I'm auditioning for are slim, I'm feeling very good about the music that I've been given. It's always nice when I'm excited about learning a piece. It's rare that I'm not excited about it, but there have certainly been times when I wasn't in love with a piece, which made it hard to motivate myself when it came time to practice. I don't feel that way about any of these songs that I've been given.