So, perhaps I should recap my experience at the auditions, no?
Well, I arrived there bright and early... around 8:30 in the morning, and there was already a huge line out the door and around the parking lot. I discovered later that I was number 408 of the non-Equity actors, and there were at least 300 or more Equity seen before they even started with non-Equity... so that means there were more than 700 people seen before me. Yikes!
There were television crews all over of the place... luckily I avoided them because I was not "interesting" enough. Yes, there were some "interesting" people there. You could tell that there were just some die hard fans there who probably had no acting experience whatsoever. A few cloaks, elf ears, and one person with a large walking stick. I was in line next to three lovely people who I befriended that day. If I remember correctly, their names were Mariem, Rob, and Adrianna. Mariem and Adrianna were both singer/actors, and Rob was an actor/combat fighter. We were out in the sun in line for about 4 hours before we got to the sign in desk. After signing in we waited almost another 4 hours before we were seen. We found a little diner in the building where the auditions were being held and camped out there until our audition times. It was a long wait, but making friends in line sure did help out a lot. Many people were crowded in this large gym-like room with a disco ball on the ceiling... sitting, sleeping, or whatever, waiting to be seen. Just say "moo," because this was a cattle call if I've ever seen one.
They were taking us in groups of 10 to be seen by the screeners. When we got downstairs there was someone there with a tape measure to make sure that people weren't lying about their height on their resumes. The woman I sang for was nice, but she told me that my voice was too classical sounding for what they are looking for. It probably didn't help that I'm not Canadian, too, so she didn't recognize any of my resume credits. So, I didn't make it past round one, and neither did any of my line friends. There were many, many, many people who did not make it past the screeners.
I was so tired by the time I was seen that I fear hearing my voice. Ah well, I plan on auditioning again if they bring it to the States. Plus, I will have, hopefully, seen it by then and can try to mold my voice accordingly to match what they are looking for.
All day all you heard was "no vibrato," so they want very clear true toned voices that are light... that what it seems like to me.
By being in Toronto, though, I learned a little more about what is going into thie production and I am even more excitied by it now. It's strange, because I will forever link Toronto with LOTR in my head, because Toronto is where I attended The Gathering of the Fellowship (which, btw, they are organizing another one to coincide with the opening of the musical next year
www.tolkiengathering.com), and now it's where I went to audition for the LOTR Musical. I tell ya, though, I think that this show it going to be stunning. I saw some skeletons of the puppetry and stilts they are using for the Black Riders... gah! Amazing! I can't wait to see this show!