As many of you know, it has been a dream of mine to work for Disney since I was a kid! I am finally starting to make that dream come true! On October 4th, 2016 I traveled to Atlanta with a friend to audition to be a Character Performer. This includes face characters, fur characters, parade performers and stills. The audition started at 10 and by the time we got there 15 till, they already had two groups go through. They had around 200 people audition and they split us up in around 50 people per group. I was number 122 and was in the third group.After waiting around, talking and stretching for about 20 mins, one of the casting directors came in. He gave us a little pep talk/reality talk. Some things the casting director talked about were that they are looking for specific type people to cast and that you could do everything perfectly today and still not get cast because they do not have a spot for you. If you come back for another audition you might be exactly what they need then, so do not give up! One of the casting directors that works for Disney now did the college program and did not get cast as a performer. He worked in food and beverage during his program, auditioned later and got in and now he is one of the casting directors! So, never give up if it is really something you want. He also mentioned that you need a lot of energy, big movements, expressions and you need to be outgoing.
He then asked us all to pull out of cell phones and sign in using a website which required our first and last name, zip code and audition number. After we did that, we were moved to another dance room where we learned a short 4 8-count dance. It was 4 counts of marching, 4 counts of a jazz square, 4 counts of skipping and two pivots worth 2 counts each. After practicing it a few times slowly, we quickened the pace and added hands. Then, we got in rows of 4 each according to our numbers and practiced the dance three times across the floor. We did this a few times and then the casting director from before casually walked in. He stood at the other side of the room with a clipboard in hand. Then, in our rows of four at a time, we all did the dance 3 times back to back.
It went by really quickly and everyone was really encouraging of everyone else. Then we all sat down and the casting director called about 1/4 of the numbers and the rest were sent packing. Including myself, sadly. The dance lasted about 20 mins, so the whole process lasted about 40 mins in total. Luckily though, one of my friends made it through! There was only one cut, so she was there for another 2-3 hours finishing the audition. She did a harder and longer dance and then an animation section where they asked her to turn from a witch into a beast or monster. You had to use big motions and body movements with minimal face expressions. At the end of the month, they will email her to let her know if she has been cast.
*While I was waiting for my friend to finish, I got to watch other people in groups before me go through parts of the audition. For one of the groups of 50+ there were about 5-7 girls who were chosen to audition for face character roles. They practiced and tried to memorize about a paragraph of interaction with a guest. They only had about 5-10 mins to do so and they, one by one, they were called in to the room of casting directors (1-2 I believe). They entered, practiced once and did it once with the camera on. They were all very excited, very chatty and very beautiful.
I hope you enjoyed this post! The next one will be more focused on my experience, feelings, thoughts, etc. at the audition and will be posted soon.
P.S. I did not sign anything and was not told that I could not talk about any of this. If I am not allowed to, I can take it down.
