On Friday afternoon, I drove from Laurinburg to Winston-Salem. That's 2 hours. The first audition was in Nashville, Tennessee. That's 7 1/2 hours from Winston. 15 hour round trip.
After driving since midnight the night before, I was running kind of low. My dad and I pulled into the parking lot at about 8 a.m. and I was bouncing off the walls. I don't even get that nervous when I show! I was one of the first there and got to meet some really cool people, including one of my future suite mates! After getting sorted, tagged and grouped, we played musical rooms a couple of times. They took us in groups of about 50 to learn a dance routine from one of the parades. At that point, my brain was gone. I might as well have been a piece of spaghetti for all of the good it was doing. The routine was not that hard and my brain knew what to do but my arms and legs were not having it. After we went across the room, we had our first cut. Surprise surprise, noodles are not wanted. oh well.
On the way home, we went past Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (30 minutes off the road we were on. 1 hour round trip). For those of you who know me, you know that I am a die hard Titanic historian/fan/person. Well, guess what was opened a year or so in Pigeon Forge? That's right! The TITANIC Museum! They built the first half of the ship at about 1/4 of it's original scale. Inside was exact replicas of the grand staircase, 1st and 3rd living quarters, hall ways, etc. They had real artifacts pulled from the wreckage, as well as a place where you could put your hand in 28 degree water, which is what the Titanic victims were forced to spend their final moments. In all honesty, I've never felt anything so painful in my life. I tried to keep my hand in as long as I could. I lasted about a minute. As a few of you might know, this year is the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking so they were collecting rose petals to be spread at the sight of the sinking on the night of April 14th. All in all, it was the saddest, most amazing thing I've ever seen and I'm so glad I got the chance to experience that.
So, for those of you keeping track, we're at 18 hours of driving in one day.
I wasn't happy with my audition in Tennessee and wanted another chance so on Monday, I headed to Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta is 5 1/2 hours from Winston, 11 hours round trip. I slept some of the way and we didn't have to leave until 3 a.m. Monday morning so I was a whole lot more awake by the time we pulled into the dance studio. Once again, we were sorted, numbered, grouped and played another round of musical rooms. My group was the third to go and the routine was the same as Nashville so I already knew it! Yay! This time, I knocked it out of the park. Unfortunately, I was cut again, but this time it wasn't because I didn't do well, it was because I was too tall. Yea.
Disney does most of their casting based on height. There are two main kinds of characters, Fur or Face. Fur are, of course, the ones in the suites. Face are Wendy, Alice, Peter Pan, the Princesses and Princes. Most of the fur characters like Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Pooh, Eeyore, etc are around 5'4" and down. Face characters like the Fairies, Tinkerbell, Wendy, Alice, etc are the same. The princesses are about 5'4" to around 5'8". I'm 5'6". Being that I am right in the middle of that range, I was grouped in the most competitive height group because everyone wants to be a princess. They cut over half of us, most of it based on height.
I felt better, even though I got cut, because I felt I did my best and I was happy with my audition. On the way back, we lost an hour because my mom wanted to meet up with my Uncle, who ended up being at work, and running into construction.
So...2 hours home + 15 for Nashville + 1 for Pigeon Forge + 11 for Atlanta + 1 for construction = 30 hours so far...
The last two hours come from heading back to school. Hello 32!
Even though I don't get to do entertainment, I still get to go to Disney. Hello Quick Service Food and Beverage!
