Typical Day
Around 9:00AM, Melody Singer gets out of her bed. She'd prefer to be up rehearsing at the crack of dawn, but she's currently not employed by any show in town. That means it's audition season—and she has to horde as much sleep as she possibly can get.
To start the day, Melody does her morning vocal warm-ups. With three auditions on the docket for today, she needs to make sure her instrument is ready to go. One sour note or missed cue might mean the part that she deserves goes to someone who hit all their notes. She also stretches her body; you never know when some auditioner will spring a dance call on you. She'd rather be prepared.
After a light breakfast of fruit and granola, Melody grabs her bag and heads to the subway at 11:00AM. Over the next few hours, she'll travel a moderate distance across the city to prove to producers and directors that she deserves a spot in their musical show.
Her first audition is at 11:30AM. She gets there and signs in on the Equity sheet, then takes a seat to wait for her turn. As she sits, Melody watches the non-union performers nervously wait for noon, when the show will finally be able to audition the non-Equity players. Melody's very thankful those days are behind her—now she's guaranteed to be seen regardless of how many other performers come in that day.
Having done well enough at her audition to earn a pat on the back, Melody meets her friend Harmony for lunch at 12:15PM. Harmony's not auditioning; she's in a show that has already run over 300 times, so she's a lot more relaxed than her pavement-pounding compatriot. While Melody is thrilled that her friend has found success (she's one of the hardest workers in town), she can't help but feel a pang of envy.
She tries to block it out with a delicious kale salad. It works long enough to keep the meeting friendly and hopeful.
Back on the subway at 1:00PM, Melody heads out for auditions two and three. They're back to back at two theaters close to each other, so she can spend the time in between reading. She doesn't get a whole lot of "me" time, so she'll take it whenever she can.
At 4:00PM, Melody gets home with enough time to exercise and shower. Her day isn't done yet—just because she doesn't have a show doesn't give her a free pass on rent. Melody's still got to pay the bills. By 4:45PM, she has a black shirt and pair of jeans on and she's ready for her nighttime bartending job.
She spends the night flinging drinks and taking orders. It may not be Andrew Lloyd Webber, but at least she's out performing in front of people for a living. One major bonus is that the bar is right next to the Gershwin Theater; at least she can tell people she works on Broadway and it isn't a complete lie.
After a whirlwind few hours behind the bar, Melody forgets all about the auditions she had today. That's a big defense mechanism for the musical theater professional: the ability to move on.
That changes in a big way at 8:30PM when she takes her break. Checking her phone messages, she can feel her face perk up as she gets the news she's been waiting for—audition number two absolutely loved her and can she come by tomorrow to sign the three-month contract?
Melody enjoys a silent scream of joy. She makes sure to keep it all inside—she's got a long few months of rehearsals ahead of her and she doesn't want to take any chances with her soon-to-be well-paid vocal chords.