It's Been a While... I'm Sorry
Hey everyone!
Sorry for being AWOL for a long time. But I'm back, kind of. I just wanted to put up a blog post to let you all know what’s been going on and also to let you know that I’ll be getting back into my audition book series shortly.
It’s been a crazy month. Lots of other work related things going on, as well as buying an apartment. Being an adult is hard and a full-time job. On top of that I've been playing A LOT of audition and rehearsals and shows, it's been really busy, busy is good, but not good for other work, like this website. Also about to finish up a gig for Norwegian Cruise Lines that has me in and out of the country in early May. Once May gets here I can breath easy! Come on May!
But here are some updates on Save My Audition!
CLASSES
CLASS SIZE - Classes will continue to have a maximum of 12 working students. This number will NEVER change, unless the length of class changes. But taking a class with more than 12 students working in a 3 hour session is ridiculous, in my opinion. I would also like to offer occasional “Small Size” classes that would consist of only 6-8 students in a 3 hour session. Giving each student a longer time to work with the instructor and really get to dig into your audition cuts. These classes would cost $99-$129 depending on the teacher and size of class. I'll test the waters with that and see if there is a desire for it from anyone.
PRICES - Last month I lowered our base price for class to $79. But now I will be lowering it again to a base price of $69 per class. There will be some fluctuation in the prices based on overall cost of class and other factors. But I’m hoping to offer most of our classes and series of classes for only $69/class. I think that is incredibly reasonable. It also allows me to handle all of my expenses and still make a little bit of money so the wife doesn't divorce me.
WHO’S MY MUSIC DIRECTOR V2 - I’m currently setting up our 2nd Music Director series. Currently it consists of Alvin Hough from ONCE ON THIS ISLAND and Julie McBride from SPONGEBOB. Possibilities include a music member from MEAN GIRLS. Working on it. This round will consist of 3 or 4 Music Directors and cost $209 or $279 respectively which represents a slight price reduction for our 1st series.
WHAT’S MY SHOW - We had some hiccups with our inaugural series with Stephen Sposito from WICKED. But we are re-attacking this as both Stephen and my schedules have changed recently. We are now looking to finally hold the series in early May. We will be adding Dominick Amendum who was the long time (8 years!) Music Director of the Broadway production to the series. It will consist of 3 classes. The first class with both Dominick and Stephen to do your initial WICKED audition and get some feedback from them and have them select callback material for you as well as a discussion about the show and the casting process. Then class 2 will be with Dominick to work on your callback music. The final class will be with Stephen to work on the whole callback package. Also working on a HAMILTON version of this class (being finalized). These series will cost approximately $209. Which is an incredible price when looking at similar offerings from other places.
FREE CLASSES - While I will still try to offer some free classes for you to enjoy and learn from, these classes will probably turn into $10 classes. Simply to help cover the expense of classes. Free classes may be free to you, but they are expensive for me. So if I can get a little bit of financial help in covering the basics of class we can have more of them! I will absolutely still aim to offer absolutely free classes whenever possible. But I can’t lose money. It’s just me, ha, I don’t have a business structure that can absorb those costs. Several classes being planned will only be available to those of you that have taken a paid class previous. I’m talking to some fun people, let’s see what I can make happen.
$10 COACHINGS - I may do a night of these in April, definitely May. The $10 is simply to cover the cost of the studio rental. But I’ll offer 30 minute coachings for $10. These are designed for you to bring in audition material that you are questionable on and see what we can do to make it work better. Come up with a new arrangement, fix the cut, blah blah blah. If you then want to turn the work we did in the coaching into new sheet music that will be provided to you at a discounted rate.
SUMMER - There will not be any classes over the summer (June-August). At least there are no plans for classes, if something comes up I will absolutely organize a class. But it’s not in the plan right now.
WEBSITE
INSTANT DOWNLOAD REHEARSAL TRACKS - I’ve been talking about this one for a while, but I’m about to finalize an agreement with The Henry Fox Agency to start offering instant download rehearsal tracks. These tracks will be priced at $3.99/track or $5.99 for both the accompaniment and the accompaniment/melody track. (Prices may change) Also in talks with Sheri Sanders to provide rehearsal tracks for all of her wonderful cuts that she has been doing through MusicNotes.com, so keep your eyes open for this new addition to the website!
SECTION REDESIGN - Hopefully soon I’ll be doing a redesign of the Audition Prep Services page to make it more stream-lined and easier to navigate. Thank you to everyone who has helped and given some feedback on how it is all set up.
RESOURCES - This has been a slow work in progress, but I have plans to further expand this section of the site. It’s been hard to find time to make this happen. But it’s in the works.
THEATRE SEASON LIST - My friend Adolpho Blair does the community a huge service by compiling an extensive list of theaters across the country and their season lineups. DOWNLOAD HERE. I failed you all and didn’t post it sooner, but feel free to download and take a look at what everyone is doing this year. It’s a great resource.
BROADWAY TIMELINE - Still working on creating an interactive timeline of Broadway shows that should be a fun resource to look through.
BLOG
I’m truly sorry that I haven’t updated the blog in over a month. It’s been crazy. Plus I’m in the middle of buying an apartment, any of you that has purchased an apartment in NYC know that it can become a full time job. But we are closing (hopefully) mid-April. So I can definitely get back into a more normal routine then. But I hope to continue my audition book series this weekend.
Working on lining up some interviews with industry professionals that I’ll be transcribing and posting both as a blog post and in the resource section of the website.
MISC.
INSTAGRAM - Save My Audition is now officially on Instagram! Check us out! I’ll be using Instagram as another platform to make announcements and all that fun stuff. Plus post pictures from auditions on the good AND the bad. Check it out for some fun pictures. Follow SaveMyAudition
SPREAD THE WORD - Help Save My Audition spread the word that we are here and we are helping! Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell everyone! The more people I can get on the site the more I can offer! Talk about us on Facebook. Talk about us on Twitter. Talk about us in the bathroom!
That’s it for now.
More to come in soon. Thanks for hanging on to my crazy life. I’m determined to keep this a mostly one person operation to help keep overall prices as low as possible.
Until next time... Get your sh*t together. Stop blowing it!
-Aaron
