Aladren Solo Acts Auditions [Cascade Hall] on Cascade Hall

Head Boy, Head Girl, and Aladren Prefects

January 27, 2009 8:09 PM

Aladren Solo Acts Auditions [Cascade Hall] by Head Boy, Head Girl, and Aladren Prefects

OOC: This post was written with the combined efforts of Chris and Bella’s authors. BIC:

After lunch and before dinner, the Hall made the perfect place to hold auditions for the Aladren concert solo. They had only one person sign up, but an announcement about the auditions had been put up on the bulletin board of the Common room in the vain hope that more people would try out not to mention actually making sure that Samantha could actually perform her talent even if there was no one else. Chris knew that he at the very least would feel horrible letting the girl go up there if she really croaked like a frog.

On the day of the auditions, Chris sat at a table with Bella, each with their parchment and writing utensils, ready to evaluate the candidate(s). The other Prefects were invited to sit with them as they so chose, but otherwise weren’t required for the position. The plan, his plan, was to be polite and formal. He would be courteous without giving away his opinion, which was what the notes were for. After everyone had tried out, then he and Bella would decide who would be given the chance to perform their talent on stage for the entire school. Glancing over at Bella, he asked with a slight joke, “Ready? Our ears may be crying for mercy later.”

Bella chuckled, but it sounded slightly strained. She was nervous. She had never had to be a judge before and now that she was one, she didn’t want to be. Bella had imagined judging something as the ultimate power, but after having auditioned over midterm for a band, Bella now felt awful having to pick and choose who was good enough. “What happens if everyone’s rubbish?” Bella whispered, not wanting to call the first one up just yet.

He pretended to think about it for a moment, before answering back with an easy grin, “Then, we put you up there.” He knew that Bella was talented; so much so that Chris had no doubt that she would be able to do something with music. Maybe not actually performing, though, it seemed highly possible since she had been good enough to get a chance with her own audition, but if not, there were numerous other ways she could go with her gift in the arts.

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Bella jested, sticking her tongue out at him. “That’s not an option.” She stated firmly. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t think it wouldn’t be fun, especially now that Solo Acts were allowed to be in the Group Acts too. It was more of the fact that Bella didn’t feel like she had enough time for all of it. She had to help Chris with the Aladren act, she had to make sure the performance was up to par, the scenary was being put together properly, on top of studying for her R.A.T.S. and practicing for her upcoming performance with Satyrs during Easter break. “Seriously though, Spud, we need a backup for this. Think Geoff would play a solo on his violin?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to ask,” Chris replied with a shrug. He was still surprised that Geoff played the violin since he had never pictured the boy doing anything other than Quidditch, but then that was probably cause that’s when they saw each other the most since they weren’t exactly friends. At any rate, so long as it wasn’t him up on the stage all would be good. While, yes, he could sing and dance, it wasn’t anything beyond common ability to do so, and aside from that, his talents were more in the academic department, which was probably part of why he wasn’t stressing so much over it. Thinking about that, he added, “Geoff probably has more free time without C.A.T.S. or R.A.T.S., so he might have the time to dedicate to it.”

“Right.” Bella nodded, chewing on her lower lip in thought. “Okay, so, are we ready?” With a nod from Chris, Bella stood up and called out for the first person to take stage. “We’re ready. Come on and show us what you have for talent.”

OOC: All Solo Acts who want to audition must post in order to be considered for that part. Please be advised that Solo Acts can also still be a part of the Group Acts. Everyone have fun and be as in-depth and creative as you can!

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Paul Tarwater

January 29, 2009 7:17 PM

At the judging stand by Paul Tarwater

Paul had chosen to sit with the Head Girl and Boy for these auditions. He’d already agreed to helping out with this whole stupid concert thing, and while it wasn’t necessary normal for him to help out in school-things like this, Paul had already gotten over the fact that the world was ending soon enough. Also, sitting around in the Cascade Hall listening to (most likely) horrible performances was a lot less painful to Paul than hiding out in the library alone and hoping that his sister didn’t get bored and seek him out. His arms itched with memory, and maybe an actual throb from earlier that week.

He missed constantly depressed Cissy.

He sat to the side, just barely listening to Chris and Bella going through their friendly banter. Paul ruffled a hand through his dark black hair, eyes skimming the lines of a book he’d taken from the library. Medical spells and positions and equipment throughout the ages, his eyes gazed across a glossy picture page watching a medieval procedure. His blank faced showed only the slightest disgust, though inside his stomach dropped, and he flipped the page quickly in case either of the older ones accidentally looked his way.

He ended up closing the book anyway, Bella had called for the first possible soloists, and Paul had to judge. The nervousness hadn’t left her stomach, this time for a different reason. He wasn’t the type of person to do an official judging, a decision that went into who made it and who didn’t. Paul was fine jumping to conclusions by himself but… he forced his elbows on the table, cool fingers under his warmed chin. Blue eyes flicking from the older Prefects to the person that he was supposed to be judging. Eyes raising in anticipation. Or just a half eye-roll to “whatever, lets just get this over with”.

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Daniel Nash II

February 03, 2009 3:08 PM

Auditioning by Daniel Nash II

It wasn't that he wanted to be in the solo. In fact, he would really rather he wasn't. But so far as he knew, and from Holly's experience at the Pecari one, the audition itself was probably the prefects' best way of determining the House member's skills and may affect his role in the group act. Holly told him that the Pecari judges had been so impressed by her song they'd expanded her role.

Holly could be exaggerating, or misinterpreting what happened, or maybe Pecari just did it differently, but Daniel didn't want to burden his prefects and the Head Girl with a lack of understanding of his abilities while they tried to work out the specifics of the group act, so here he was.

As he'd already known, the hardest thing was deciding what script to use. Acting, by definition, required some kind of reaction to outside stimulus, and in a solo, he didn't have anyone to play against. There was a reason acting auditions generally involved at least one other person, either another actor who'd already been cast or was trying out for another part, or somebody else, who would read the other character(s) lines.

But today, it was just him.

"Hi," he began, addressing the panel of prefects and Head Girl. "I'm Daniel Nash. I'm actually not really interested in the solo, but I thought I should audition anyway, since I, you know, volunteered to carry most of the group act, if that's what you need me to do."

He'd thought about some Shakespeare soliloquies, but discarded those immediately as too pretentious. Besides which, he didn't think real people would contemplate to be or not to be out loud. He was a realism actor. He liked the gritty immediacy of his detective show.

He'd thought of recycling an act he'd already done in front of cameras, but most of his scenes had needed either other cast, complex props, or a background story that he didn't have time to establish.

Then he decided he could steal a leaf from his sister's book. She'd taken a scene directly out of her favorite movie and ignored that there were supposed to be two other characters (neither of which, fortunately, had had lines in her song) or that the judges might not be familiar with the story. It stood fairly well by itself. He just needed to find a similar scene. One with less singing.

From their reactions at the House meeting, Danny already knew that few if any of the Aladren judges were familiar with muggle anything, nevermind specific movies or TV shows, so he didn't bother to explain where his scene was coming from. He just took a step back, broke eye contact, and took a deep breath to signal he was about to begin.

There was only one scene he had been able to come up with that had both a lot of dialogue (without it being exposition, narration, or a tedious soliloquy) and only one character. He had written home for the script and Mom had procured it and sent it back to him within a day. So he'd had four days in which to memorize and rehearse it. Still, he thought he had it down pretty well.

"Shh! Quiet!" Danny hissed, hunching his shoulders.

He turned abruptly, his expression turning more vicious. "Mustn't wake them, mustn't ruin it now!"

He turned back, his features becoming more open, more worried. "They knows. They knows. They suspects us."

The expression closed into the harder look he was using for Gollum. "What is it saying, my Precious, my love?" He petted an imaginary ring. "Is Smeagol loosing his nerve?"

"No!" Danny jumped back, shaking his head, eyes wide and voice urgently defensive. "Not! Never! Smeagol hates nasty hobbitses! Smeagol wants to see them dead!"

Now actually performing in front of people who likely had no idea at all who Gollum or Smeagol were, he worried that maybe they wouldn't get that the two were the same person, and he would just look ridiculous playing two roles instead of talented for playing a creature with a split personality. Perhaps he should have explained a little of the back story. Well, it was too late now.

Still, he didn't pause before narrowing his eyes again, but smiling, in what he hoped was a disturbingly evil way, "And we will. Smeagol did it once." Danny tilted his head, still smilingly slyly. "He can do it again." The smile ended abruptly and his eyes narrowed further with intensity and greed. "It's ours. Ours!"

Eyes widening again for his depiction of Smeagol, Danny nodded in determination. "We must get the Precious. We must get it back."

Danny narrowed his eyes, though he kept most of Gollum's malevolence out of them this time. He lowered his voice to a calm cadence. "Patience. Patience, my love. First we must lead them to her."

He smiled, but while this one was still devious, it was happier than the evil one he'd given earlier. "We lead them to the windy stairs."

"Yes," Danny's Gollum encouraged. "Yes, the stairs, and then . . ."

"Up, up, up, up, up the stairs we go," Danny's Smeagol finished cheerfully, "until we come to . . ." Danny took on a mischievous look that was more naughty school boy than evil incarnate, "the tunnel!"

Danny hunched lower, smiling the evil smile again. "And when they go in, there's no coming out. She's always hungry. She always needs to feed. She must eat and all she gets is filthy Orcses."

He straightened a little and smiled with smug knowledge. "And they doesn't taste very nice, does they, Precious?"

His tone turned sinister and he hunched for Gollum again. "No, not very nice at all, my love. She hungers for sweeter meats. Hobbit meats." He rubbed his hands together greedily. "And when she throws away the bones and the empty clothes, then we will find it."

"And take it for me!" Danny exclaimed triumphantly, jumping up.

"For us," he corrected sharply, with his Gollum look.

"Yes, yes," Danny agreed, nodding quickly, backtracking, but still sounding excited. "We. We meant for us."

He smiled again, a slow evilly avaricious one. "The Precious will be ours once the Hobbitses are dead."

Daniel stood up again and looked at the judges, his voice returning to his normal tones instead of the sibilant hissing of Gollum and Smeagol. "That was from the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. The character was of Gollum, a creature with a split personality who was plotting to kill two of the story's heroes." He gave a bow and exited the staging area.

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Samantha Hollister

February 08, 2009 2:53 AM

Taking the stage by Samantha Hollister

Samantha wasn't the least bit anxious about performing the solo. She hadn't even seen anyone else who really even wanted it in Aladren. That was what happened though when she was in a house full of nerds, where everyone else was concerned more about their grades. She had no need to worry about her RATS, as Samantha had no intentions of going to college or having a career. She was going to be a socialite. She supposed Aladren was better than being in Pecari though. At least Aladrens weren't all completely uncouth. Besides, Pecaris would all want to be the center of attention, and that was her spot.

Not that it would matter if she did have competition. Samantha would wow them all. She was a better singer than anything else Aladren had to offer. The only reason competition would bother her at all was the audacity of anyone else thinking they had a chance.

She had spent weeks rehearsing, as soon as she'd found a song. Well, rather, Chrissy had found the song for her. Samantha had been rather surprised. Usually her twin was so mean to her all the time, taking her voice away nearly every morning and such. It had made it very hard to practice but she still persevered. She was glad though. Perhaps Chrissy was going to come around and become proper yet. Besides, Samantha hated to do research or anything.

Samantha had also spent the time leading up to the audition today preparing her look. She had spent hours applying make-up and using charms and products on her hair. She wore a glamorous pink dress with a floor length skirt and pink sparkly top. Appearances were very important. One couldn't look casual or sleazy on stage. You had to look stunning, and she did, even more so than usual. Of course, Samantha would wear something completely different for the actual concert. It wouldn't do to be seen wearing the same exact thing.

As soon as the firstie boy was done, Samantha took the stage. She began to sing

"Lirum bililirum, li-lirum, lirum, lirum.
Deh si soni la sordina.
Tu m'intendi ben, Pedrina,
Ma non già per il dovirum.
Lirum bililirum, li-lirum,
Deh, si soni la sordina,
Deh, si soni la sordina,
Le ses an che t'vo mi ben
E che t'son bon servidor,
Ma t'aspet che l'so ben
Ch'al fin sclopi per amor.
Deh, non da plu tat dolor,
Tu sa ben che dig il virum."

Even though she didn't know what any of the words meant Samantha thought it was a beautiful song and she performed it perfectly. Every note was flawless. Her voice carried through the room. When Samantha was finished, she curtsied, as was proper for females instead of bowing, and left the stage.

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