Auditions!

She woke with a dream still hanging in the corners of her mind. It quickly evaporated in the pink of early morning. The sun, not yet up over the roofs of the row houses. Yet it was morning. The birds well into their song, dancing through the tangle of trees and vines that covered the space between the back of one row and the back of the next. She had woken too early. She rolled over and searched with her left hand for the cell phone. Finding it she held it over her head and flipped it open to read 6:15am. There was another hour and a half before she needed to get up. It was a whole half an hour before she normally awoke, but today was the audition.

A little over an hour later found her fully awake and climbing the stairs to take a shower. Nerves or stress would not let her slip back into forgetful sleep, so she was up getting ready. She took a long shower and spent a good amount of attention on her hair. Once out of the shower, she dried her self off and slipped into the skirt and shirt she had picked out the night before. She slung her still wet hair up like a turban and wondered back to her room. Her mind was already working through what she needed to do, rather than what was ahead.

She left the apartment at 8:45, hair blown dry, makeup on. She had changed her clothing three times and settled on a dress rather than the skirt. Her character shoes bounced around in her bag. Half a block away from her apartment she waited five minutes for the number 40 bus, which lucky for her would drop her off just a block away from the audition. She normally hated riding the bus, but today it was the only mode of transportation that made sense. While the bus bounced its way down 40th street, stopping at intervals to pick up and drop off passengers. She tried to consecrate on the introduction of her two monologues and that the monologues them selves, but found that she had no concentration. So she covertly watched people on the bus, but found that this was too difficult as well.

The bus made its way through university city and across the bridge towards center city. She started to watch the numbers and names of the streets. While the bus weaved its way southwestward, she found that it was easy to concentrate on things out side the bus so she did. Finally the hit 15th street, and she pulled the sting to request a stop. She stood up, riding the bus momentum till she reached the door, and waited for the doors to swing forward. She thanked the bus driver and stepped out into the cool morning air. The sun hot on her face. She turned and walking in front of the stopped bus crossed the street and headed north on Broad. Less than a block away was the theatre in which she would audition. She felt her heart thumping... and took a quick breath.

She found the theatre with no difficulty and pushed one of the large doors opened. She made her way to the sign in, smiled and gave her name. She was at least 30 min. early, but that was good. She found a seat and pulled out the pear she had brought with her, she started to eat it while she read over her monologues and continued to stay calm. After the pear was gone she went to the bathroom and made sure her hair and makeup was OK. Than she headed back out to the lobby were other hopeful nervous people waited. Someone had taken her seat, so she found another. The first group was called in. She was sure to be in the second group. So she slipped out of her flats and into her character shoes, humming to clear her voice.

Her name was called, last of the next group of five. She followed the group, a line of people around her own age, of various heights and body types. They walked single file down the hall way that lead to the back stage, to wait. This wait was worse, there was no concentrating here. She had to just let her self be, calm down and wait. She listened to the girl two people in front of her, give a great audition, than laughed at the guy who went on before her. It was nice to be able to hear what other people were doing, it was calming. Than it was her turn, she took a breath and stepped out onto the stage.

"Good morning, My name..." less than five minutes later she would be done. She made it through the slate, and taking a breath dove into her first monologue. She missed a line in the first monologue, it was the weaker of the two, but even with the few mess ups that really only she could know about, it was good. The second, one of her favorite monologues, from Chekhov's The Bear, went smashing. It was a good strong monologue. She finished stood from her chair and walked forward "Thank you" Less than five minutes and she was done.

She walked back out of the hallway, smiling at those who still had those five minutes a head of them. She grabbed her back, slipped off her character shoes and into her flats. In the bathroom she told herself that it was a good audition and that mistakes were normal. She prayed for call backs, and left the theatre for the morning sunshine and the street.