Glee Casting Redux

Looks like they are reviving the casting process for Season 3. I mentioned this possibility back in June.

http://www.gleecasting.com/

I would *love* to audition, however one of the "must haves" is to be able to portray a teenager convincingly.

Gah.

I know I don't look my age, but I don't look like a 16 year old anymore either.

And honestly, I thinking playing Rachel's aunt would be far more interesting.

Do you hear me Ryan Murphy?!

She Needs to be Grounded

It's become evident Rachel needs a mother-figure to guide her through adolescence. I think it's time for her aunt (me!) to show up in her life and provide her some discipline.

As you can see, she's clearly no longer able to dress herself properly.

P.S. Lea, we get it. You're hot. But please put on some pants!

It Gets Better

So Much For That

Apparently the people at work are more concerned with doing work than becoming glee club superstars. So we didn't get in even one rehearsal, never mind a submission video for Canada Sings.

Boo. :(

I guess I will just have to resume my campaign to be Rachel's Aunt through alternate means.

BTW, some jerk-hole said I was too ugly to be on Glee. I know I shouldn't let it hurt my feelings, but it did, and it does.

If you disagree, please leave a positive comment on my YouTube video. If for nothing, it'll at least make me feel better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4tWXoqa0go

Canada Sings!

My soon-to-be-sister-in-law sent me this link: http://www.insighttv.com/canada_sings/

I almost had a heart attack when I read it. Within moments, I put together an email and sent it out to my co-workers. I've already got three who are in, a dance captain and a music coordinator.

I will get on a glee type TV show yet!!!!

Family Ties

It was announced that Carol Burnett will be guest starring as Sue Sylvester's (played to perfection by Jane Lynch) mother.

I'm hoping as they bring more family members onto the canvas, my bid to be Rachel's aunt will pan out.

Can you hear me Mr. Murphy?

I just hope that TPTB will still consider non-famous people for guest roles. Along with Carol Burnett, they've got Susan Boyle lined up for a guest spot in the Christmas episode, and Javier Bardem is being tapped to play a substitute Spanish teacher.

It makes me sad the show has gotten so big that they are forgetting their roots. Part of its charm was because they had a bunch of unknowns creating a new, quirky universe.

Maybe I'll have to get famous first and that will be my golden ticket inside.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Principal's Office

A few months ago, I saw a tweet from Iqbal Theba, the actor who plays Principal Figgins on Glee, saying he would send an autographed photo to anyone who was a principal at a school. "From one principal to another!"

At the time, I was working as the head of student services at a private film college. I tweeted back to him asking if that would qualify. He said yes! So I sent him a letter through the mail on the school's letter head asking if he would send me an autograph.

Lo and behold, it has arrived!!!!

He's so totally cool! I loved that he signed it right across his forehead. How very gleeky of him!

Even though I'm not working at the school anymore, I think I may hang this up in my new cubicle on Monday. I'm sure my new boss will think I'm a weirdo. Better to get that out in the open now. :)

Down But Not Out

It looks like TPTB over at Glee have quietly nixed the whole kit and caboodle.

Read the entire article here. The most important part of the article, and the part that has me still excited is:

"While the reality show is dead, Murphy and his producing team still plan on choosing several winners from the online casting competition and giving them a spot on Glee (at least for one episode)."

THAT is EXACTLY what I asked for in the introduction to my song/scene submission. To refresh your memory, click here. It was Take #1 that I used.

And I quote, "I really love Glee, and I would give anything to have an opportunity to be a part of the cast. Even if it was just for one episode."

Perhaps someone saw my video and thought I had a great idea? WOULDN'T THAT BE FREAKING AWESOME?

Oh yes my friends, I'm still in this....

Call Me!

The buzz on the net is that callbacks are happening next week.

I am praying with every cell in my body that their people are going to call my people.

I know it's a long shot. I know it's pretty much one in a million. But if it's going to happen for someone, why not me?

As Debbie Harry once sang.... CALL ME!!!

(Please and thank you.)

It Can Still Work

SPOILER ALERT!!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!!

Do not continue reading if you haven't watched last night's Glee episode "Theatricality".

It was revealed to Mr. Shue that Shelby is no longer able to have children and part of why it was so hard to give up Rachel was because she always wanted a daughter.

I was upset at first when I was watching this unfold. But then I got to thinking a little and here are some suggestions on how I can still be woven into the Glee universe.

1. Shelby could have been lying to Mr. Shue to garner sympathy from him. After all, he was concerned that Shelby was going to use her new found mom status to mess with Rachel's head, thus messing with New Directions and their chances of beating Vocal Adrenaline at regionals.

2. Shelby could have given birth to my character, but resented her for ruining Shelby's chances at stardom and disowned her from the beginning. Then it makes sense for Shelby to be saying she's always wanted a daughter.

3. It's likely Shelby has sons. My guess is they will set up a situation where Rachel falls in love with her half brother. Totally awkward(!) but would make for a great storyline.

4. I could play Shelby's slightly younger sister.

Actually, maybe that's the angle I could and should pitch. I could be Rachel's super awesome nice aunt who becomes the mother figure for Rachel that Shelby refuses to be. And that could set up a wicked (pun intended) dynamic between the three of us.

Hmmm.... I think I may have to change the title of this blog now.

Rachel's Mom

SPOILER ALERT!!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!!

Do not continue reading if you haven't watched last night's episode of Glee called "Dream On".

It was revealed that Shelby, the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, played by the amazing Idina Menzel, is indeed Rachel's mom!!! Oh it was such a delicious and wonderful scene.

That now creates a teeny problem for my idea of playing Rachel's sister. I may look a little too old to play Idina's daughter. She's only 4 years older than me in real life. The time line would have to go like this:

1970: Shelby is born
1986: Annie Jenkins (my character) is born to a teenaged Shelby, ruining her dreams of Broadway
1993: Rachel Berry is born to Shelby

Here's a visual. Maybe I don't look too old....

And They're Done, Again

Voting and submissions were shut down about 5 minutes ago. I finished off with 79,052 gold stars. I really hope that's enough to get someone's attention over at Team Glee.

In total, 33,096 people "auditioned". WOW. I knew there were a lot of gleeks out there but holy moses, that number is larger than the population of my hometown!

THANK YOU (again) to all of my friends for your amazing support. I promise I will figure out a way to properly thank you all for your dedication to this. I hope none of you develop carpal tunnel from all that clicking!

My fingers and toes are now permanently crossed until I hear yay or nay.

All of Me

So I did a search on my name to see how many Ann-Maries have submitted an audition video.

I tried different variations: Ann Marie, AnnMarie, Anne Marie, AnneMarie, Anne-Marie and of course, the way I spell my name (which is the proper way!!!) Ann-Marie. I am the only one with a hyphen. So even though there are other AMs, I'm still the only Ann-Marie. :)

In total there are 11 of us, including myself.

Collectively, we are original in that none of us submitted "Lean on Me". Thank goodness! I would be ashamed of us if any had done that super cliche song.

The breakdown is as follows:

3 - True Colours
3 - Don't Rain on my Parade
1 - Just Can't Fight This Feeling
1 - Hold On
1 - Rehab
1 - Couldn't figure out how to upload her song so her monologue was posted twice. Doh!

None of them are even close to the number of votes I have. So I am totally appointing myself to represent all AMs in the Glee audition process.

I'm glad to know that in a sea of over 28,000 submissions, I'm still an original!

Voting is Back Up!

Voting has been restored! Please click, click, click for me!!!! I'd love to break the 80,000 mark.

http://www.myspace.com/gleeauditions?link=7506712

It looks like voting will close tomorrow at midnight Pacific time. Which would be 3am EST.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOU SUPPORT!!!!

WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

GLEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Encore

I just saw an announcement via the Glee Facebook Fan Page about another opportunity for people to submit their audition video:

Due to popular demand, we will have a one-day “encore” of the audition process. Starting this Wednesday, April 28 at 12:00pm PT through Thursday, April 29 at 11:59am PT, you will be able to submit an audition if you haven’t done so already.

The video gallery and voting is still disabled with this message:

Thanks to all those who auditioned for Glee.
The audition gallery is down for maintenance due to Gleek onslaught.
We're working to get it back online as quickly as possible.
-Thanks!

I'm actually shocked they are opening this up again. At last count, there were over 13,000 submissions. That's a lot of bandwidth!

I hope voting will open up again for the previously submitted entries. My core team will get back on the case and hopefully bump me up over 80,000.

And They're Done

That's all she wrote! They officially shut down submissions and voting this afternoon. Here is the goodbye message:

Thanks for sending in your auditions!
All the submissions are being reviewed and you'll be notified by the Glee team if you're selected to move forward in the casting process.

At last count, I had crossed the 73,000 mark. I'm really hoping that puts me into the top percentile of vote getters, and thus, gets my video in front of a pair of Glee Team eyes.

I want to give the biggest and warmest THANK YOU to my core team of voters who literally made it their mission to get me as many votes as humanly possible. Without them, I would have been a five star loser. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I will be doing something special for you guys in the coming weeks.

Now I just need you all to cross your fingers and toes for me, and send out positive vibes to the Glee team to get me to the next round!

Is She Paying Someone?

Emma currently has 74,880 votes.

http://www.myspace.com/gleeauditions?link=46401760

Please tell me I'm better than her!

I need a little reassurance here folks.

By The Numbers

Number of video submissions at this moment: 8,688

Number of votes on my video at this moment: 8,103

Number of friends with largest voting contribution: 10

Largest number of votes: Emma with 37,179 votes

For seriously? 37,179? I watched her video and in all honesty, she's not that good. So she either has a huge friend/family voting crew, or she's voting for herself 24/7.

I have found in my random clicking that there are a lot of people with votes in the 1 - 200 range, a handful with votes in the 2,000 - 6,000 range, and then Emma.

I am praying I end up in the Top 100 at least. My guess is the producers will look at the top vote getters and hopefully there will be a handful of worthy people to go for in-person auditions.

Keep on clicking for me! I don't want all of your effort to go to waste. I am truly humbled and extremely grateful for all the support I've received thus far.

Separated at Birth

Here's a side by side comparison of me & my would-be television sister. Pardon my winter tan.

What do you all think? I think we can totally pass for sisters from a different mister!

MySpace Link

http://www.myspace.com/gleeauditions?link=7506712

Please give me a gold star!!!! Oh man, I'm sooooooo happy it's up and didn't get deleted.

WHOOOOOOOO!!!!


Here's a screen capture of my video page:



You will need to login via MySpace or Facebook to cast a vote. The login button is on the top right side, just above my song video.


Once you've logged in, give me a gold star!


Rinse and repeat! Multiple votes are allowed. I'll need all the help I can get to grab the attention of the producers.

Hollywood, here I come!!!!

It's Done

It's uploaded to the audition site for review. Pray they will take a look at it even though it breaks all the rules.

And here it is for your enjoyment!

A huge thank you goes to my editor James for doing this project with me and putting up with my nerves getting the better of me. (He's sitting beside me right now laughing as I type this.)

Wish me luck folks!

OMG

THEY CHANGED THE SUBMISSION RULES!!!!!!!!!!

Now they are asking for submissions from people 16 years of age and OLDER. Up until 2 days ago they had a cut off of 26. But now it's OPEN.

WTF?!?!?!

My submission was based on the fact that I didn't meet any of their criteria. NOW I DO.

OMG WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!? It's too late to redo my song.

And I re-read the submission rules and they have emphasized that submissions must be from their song list ONLY and no references can be made to ANYTHING ELSE!

Geezus.

I'm just going to forge ahead with my original plan. If they like me, they'll hire me. If they don't, well, it's back to my regularly scheduled life.

4980

To date, there are 4980 videos that have been submitted.

I really need to get on my editor's ass to get this shizz DONE!

Help Me!

I can't decide on which intro to use. If you could take, literally 3 minutes total, right now to watch these videos and then vote, I'll be forever grateful. And you'll be forever awesome for helping me choose the right video to grab the attention of the producers.

Take #1


Take #2


Take #3

Frustration

I haven't been able to connect with my director to re-shoot the footage that was lost. I'm getting anxious because the closing date for submissions is April 26th. And as I've mentioned before, I don't want the producers to suddenly end the casting call because they've received a million videos.

I spent most of last night trying to record the minute introduction. I just used my own little webcam so it's not going to be in high-def.

I did about 20 takes. Let me say, it's really HARD to say everything you want to say in under a minute. And it's even harder to maintain one's sincerity after saying the same thing over and over again.

I'm trying to pick between three different takes. Each are slightly different and have good points in differing ways. In one, I look really awesome. In another, you can really tell how bad I want to be on Glee. In the third one, I'm funny. So they all have their strengths but alas, I can only use just one.

At any rate, I'm scheduled to shoot the scene tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that disaster doesn't strike yet again.

Disaster

You know it's bad when a conversation starts with, "Please don't kill me."

I got a call from my director with some bad news. The footage we shot was accidentally recorded over. At first I thought it was an April Fool's joke, but he promised he wouldn't joke about something like that. Especially when he knows how important this project is to me.

His friend borrowed his camera without his knowledge and used it to record some auditions he was having. He taped right over all the footage we had completed. My director hadn't dumped the footage onto his computer as of yet.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

We were supposed to continue filming the scene tonight but there was no point without the first part we had shot as it wouldn't match.

So I'm heading back to the drawing board and reworking the scene so that it's shorter and so that we can shoot it in a few hours rather than across a few days.

I figure everything happens for a reason so I am going to take the next few days and work hard on getting this scene down to a minute. My plan is to do a one minute intro to let the producers know I'm breaking all their submission rules. Then I submit my song + scene, which in total will run the four minutes they are allocating for the song submission. My song is at 2min37sec, which means my scene can only be a maximum of 1min23sec.

The plan is to shoot on Monday. Wish me luck! Or at least wish my footage to not get recorded over again!

Let The Races Begin!

The casting just opened up today. I almost fell out of my chair when the email came in notifying me that it has begun!

I logged in to see what is required and much to my horror, I discovered the following rules:

1. The submission must be a maximum of 5 minutes in length. (Okay, this is not what horrified me.)
2. The first minute of the submission is an introduction stating name, city, and why you want to be on Glee. (Not too bad, but kinda dumb.)
3. The remaining four minutes is the song which must be from their set list. (This is what horrified me!)

They have 10 songs on the set list:

And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going
Dreamgirls

Gold Digger (Radio Version)
Kayne West

Rehab
Amy Winehouse

You Can't Always Get What You Want
The Rolling Stones

Can't Fight This Feeling
REO Speedwagon

Don't Rain On My Parade
Barbra Streisand

Hate On Me
Jill Scott

Keep Holding On
Avril Lavigne

Lean On Me
Bill Wither

True Colors
Phil Collins

The biggest question I have is, why on earth do they want to hear songs that have already been recorded and for lack of a better word, immortalized, by the current cast?! I'm sure the producers are going to get really bored, really fast, listening to the same 10 songs over and over again. I'm shocked actually they didn't leave the song choice up to the performer and just put the 4 minute time limit on it.

I'm sure it had something to do with getting clearances for the songs for when they will air the submissions as promos and put them into their behind-the-scenes documentary. But they have enough clout now (Hello? They are Golden Globe winners!) to be able to get the clearances they would need. And seriously, anyone who denies them would be a fool given the worldwide popularity of Glee.

I LOVE the song I chose for them. I carefully considered many songs and settled on the one I chose after a lot of debate, strategizing and straight up hair-pulling.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. The deadline is April 26th, but I don't want to wait too long that they decide to close off submissions once they realize everyone and their cat will be submitting a video, or once they get sick of the 102,438th version of "Lean On Me".

Oh I would bet my life on the fact it will be the #1 song choice. It's already a cliche audition song, and an even more cliche audition song for American Idol. And now for Glee?! This is going to put it over the top for the most hated audition song on the planet.

In the meantime, I'm going to finish filming my scene. I'm schedule to shoot this Thursday. April Fool's Day. Ha! You know I ain't foolin' when it comes to making this dream a reality.

Scene It

Tonight I'm starting to shoot the scene I wrote to introduce my character into the Glee universe. I'll be cutting it against existing footage of Rachel. It'll be obvious that the location doesn't match, but all I'm trying to do is show the producers that when in a scene together, we totally look related.

I'm hoping to wrap everything by the end of the weekend and then finish the edit by next week.

I am pretty certain the producers will go into full casting when they wrap their current production of the Back 9 episodes of Season 1. So I think I've got until at least the end of this month to have everything ready to go.

It's Done!

My audition video is in the can! WHOO!

I spent about 2 hours last night with my editor pouring over the footage we shot and finally settling on the best take - which happened to be the last one.

We threw in a few shots of my piano player to make it a little more interesting to watch. And voila, c'est magnifique!

Okay, I don't know how magnificent it really is, as I spent most of the time with my fingers in my eyes trying to gouge them out. I am *not* good at watching myself on the screen, especially when I'm singing. Watching each take, I could tell what was going through my mind. I mentioned to my editor that I could see where my brain would check out because I was so nervous. I asked him if he could tell and he assured me I look and sound awesome.

As we were locking in the final edit, my friend came over to take a look. She gave me two big thumbs up. She said she got chills after the first few bars of the song.

With that blessing, we locked it down and burned it to DVD. On my way home I stopped in at another friend's place and showed her my creation. She gave me two big thumbs up and said the same thing - she got chills listening to my singing.

I have to trust these people aren't lying to me. There has always been a teeny little spot in my brain that thinks everyone has been lying to me my whole life about my talent. I keep telling it to shut up but it can get pretty loud sometimes.

So now I just have to wait for the audition process to be posted on the official Glee website. I'm totally guessing at what it is they are looking for. I based my audition video on the casting videos they posted of the current cast. All of them went into a room with a piano player and belted out a show tune. So that's exactly what I did. I just made it look a little prettier than a handy cam recording.

Once the green light is lit, I'll post my video here. I'm hoping all of you will support me in my quest to land what I think would be the greatest job ever.

I'm still praying I didn't totally suck.

Rack of Nerves

The bane of my existence has always been the audition process. I freak out 100% of the time. I know the reason this happens is because I so badly want the person for whom I'm auditioning to love me. You could put me in front of 10,000 people and tell me to sing, and I wouldn't bat an eyelash. However, put me in a room with just one or two people for an audition, and I fall to pieces.

So in my usual fashion, I fell to pieces last night. I had a crew of 5 plus my piano player. I was very close to tears while getting into make up. I couldn't stop wringing my hands. I was jittery and shaking. My throat was dry and my mouth felt like it was packed with cotton.

We did three takes of the song from Rent, and then I threw in a take of "Some Kind of Wonderful" just as a back up in case my chosen song really fell flat. I watched back a bit of the footage from the third take and it looked alright to me. However, I still have to sit and listen with headphones before I can make a decision about which take is the keeper.

I'm terrified that I blew all three takes. I'm terrified that everyone in the room was lying to me to protect my feelings and the actual truth is that I sucked it each time. I'm terrified that everyone I know has been lying to me my whole life about my singing abilities.

I want this more than anything I've ever wanted in my whole life. I've auditioned for a lot of stuff over the last 10 years. And yes, there were gigs that I didn't get which devastated me. But this is on a whole different level. I want this so badly I can practically touch and taste it.

I truly believe everything happens for a reason. And I also believe that everything which has happened in my life has led me to this moment.

The proof will be in the pudding once my editor downloads the footage. Until then, I'm gonna try to cool my jets and focus on other things. Like work on a Plan B if my nerves managed to wreck Plan A.

Tonight! Tonight!

I'll be taping my song tonight for my audition. I'm really excited and very happy about my song choice. I don't want to give it away, but I can tell you it's from Rent.

Once the song is in the can, I can move on to the scene I've written. The scene will be icing on the audition cake, so to speak. If I can get it shot and edited by next week, I'll submit that along with the song.

There's been a lot of chatter on various Glee fan sites that the online submissions are about to open up. So I really need to hit my song out of the park tonight. I want to be the first one out of the gate when they green light submissions.

T-minus 5 hours until the cameras starting rolling!

More Audition Info

I follow a ton of the Glee fan site Twitter pages and today this came in:

#GLEEKS! You WILL Be Getting A MAJOR Audition Opportunity This FRIDAY! Stay Tuned! #GLEE @UltimateGleeks RT!

I'm FREAKING out! I am finally over that stupid cold which had me sidelined from any singing for the better part of two weeks.

I am currently trying to nail down a night to shoot my song but there always seems to be something standing in my way. First it was being sick, then it was my camera operator's schedule and now it's my keyboard player's schedule!

AHHHHHHH!!!!

I feel like time is quickly slipping away and this opportunity may not be around for as long as one would hope.

I have to get in touch with everyone and see if they can do something with me on Friday night because who knows, this may be my only shot!

Minor Set Back

Ugh! I've been sick for the last few days and who knows how long it'll be before I can sing again!

I woke up on Tuesday morning with an extremely sore throat. It was almost swollen shut and I couldn't swallow without pain. And I most certainly could not talk, let alone sing!

I stayed home from work to rest and will myself back to health. Yesterday it got a little bit better in that I could talk again, however, I now have a very raspy voice.

Oh please Lord, let me get better soon! I don't want to miss the window of opportunity to audition. I'd just die if the audition process began while I am sick!

Fitting In

I just finished writing the script I'm going to use as an audition piece. I think it's a rather clever way of introducing my character into the Glee universe.

I also picked out the perfect song! I sent the sheet music off to my accompanist so she can learn it lickity split.

Now I just have to put together a shoot schedule and get this thing onto celluloid!

The Best News EVER!

Today on the Glee website, it was announced they will begin accepting online video submissions for new additions to the cast for Season 2.

http://www.fox.com/glee/audition/

I. AM. FREAKING. OUT!

I was just saying to a couple of friends last night that I've been waiting for that big opportunity to audition for a show. WELL HERE IT IS!!!

Ever since the show hit the airwaves, EVERYONE I know says, "You could TOTALLY play Rachel's sister!"

WELL THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'M GOING TO DO!!!

(Sorry for all the shouting. Did I mention I'm freaking out?!)

I've already got a kick ass plan for my video submission. And I'm going to need all of your help in getting the producers' attention once I have it up online.

Stay tuned!!!