If you’ve been poking around on the “About” page on this here site, you’ll notice that in addition to my blogging and communications escapades I’m also an actor and singer. Surprise!

I love performing. I knew from the time I saw “Peter Pan” when I was about 5 or 6 years old that I wanted to be up onstage at some point in the future. I have performed in many shows, from the ensemble to featured to lead roles – a couple of times I was even paid me for my troubles, which was truly the cherry on top.

However, in order to perform onstage in a show, one must first get through the seventh circle of hell known as…AUDITIONS (dun dun duuuuun). I HATE auditions, especially ones that involve singing. It’s not that I’m bad at singing – quite the contrary, I’m actually very, very good at it. The problem is that the process is so stressful and terrible that I tend to let my nerves get the best of me – all because of the unpredictability of what could happen in the audition room.

Case in point – at a couple of past in-person auditions, I’ve had accompanists totally butcher my audition song. I bravely plowed ahead, but it definitely didn’t help my nerves. Luckily after one of those auditions I was called back which was shocking since I wasn’t expecting it, and I totally rocked the callback (unfortunately I did not get cast in that show; but to be fair, there were like six people called back so the competition was fierce). That’s not to say that the accompanists were bad; it’s more to do with the whole process of auditions that requires them to sight read a whole bunch of music while performers try to put their best foot forward and make a terrific first impression in a minute or less.

It’s awful. I dread auditions. But it’s a necessary evil if you want to get cast in a show. Sigh.

Now, you’d probably think that given my loathing of in-person auditions that video auditions would be preferable, right? Well….yes and no. And here’s why.

Audition Self Tape Pros

You don’t have to worry about sight reading accompanists, or getting nervous in front of a production team seemingly judging your every move. All you have to worry about is performing in front of the camera! And you can practice with and use a karaoke version of the audition song you want to use. Easy peasy.

Plus, if you make any mistakes you can re-tape it as many times as you’d like until you get it perfect. What’s not to love?!

Audition Self Tape Cons

Yeah, the whole being able to re-tape if you make mistakes? If you’re a Type A perfectionist like me, instead of spending a few minutes taping yourself and calling it a day you end up filming like 100 takes and find something wrong and/or that can be improved upon in every single one so you keep re-taping until your vocal chords start to rebel from overuse.

Another self tape con – if you’re a belter like me, a video recording is NOT going to show off your voice in the way it should be shown off. I have not had luck sending in self tapes that involve me performing a belty song since I’m “blessed” with an Ethel Merman-level power belt that makes my microphone struggle to keep up. At in-person auditions, it’s impressive and tends to lead to me being called back and/or cast. On self-tapes it’s ear-splitting and doesn’t present my voice in the best light at all.

To help combat the mic issue my amazingly supportive husband gifted me a better mic over the holidays in an attempt to better showcase my powerful belt for video auditions. It has helped, but it still struggles – we’re workshopping solutions to help my voice better shine on video in the meantime.

That said – on the whole auditions are not my favorite as an actor and singer. However, having had the privilege of being on the production team for a musical last fall I now have a new appreciation for the audition process from the other side of the table and everything that goes into casting…but that’s a story for another post.