Potential line of enquiry 3: The professional auditionee; how do we prepare ourselves for the process and deal with rejection?

Definition of 'professional' - Oxford dictionary 

Relating to or belonging to a profession.

‘young professional people’

Worthy of or appropriate to a professional person; competent, skilful, or assured.

‘his professional expertise’
‘their music is both memorable and professional’

Engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as an amateur.

‘a professional boxer’

Definition of 'audition' - Oxford Dictionary 

An interview for a role or job as a singer, actor, dancer, or musician, consisting of a practical demonstration of the candidate's suitability and skill.


‘the Royal Ballet gave Nicola an audition’

The idea of being a 'professional auditionee' was given to me whilst in my third year of training. At this point in our class singing lessons we had begun to 'rehearse' auditions, everything from how we walk into the room and address the panel, how we talk to the pianist, where we look, what we should wear, how we stand, let alone actually getting to the point where we might sing! We were told quite bluntly, that the majority of us would spend more time auditioning then we ever would performing, hence the focus in class. Since graduating, I have come to learn how true this was, and therefore I am extremely interested to learn how others deal with the process.

Before training I was always a very nervous auditionee. I would dread auditioning and got very worked up with the whole process, but since college something has flipped completely, and I have actually come to rather enjoy the experience, which I never thought I would say! The subject is obviously still very broad and I definitely want to narrow this question down a bit, so I started a SIG group on Facebook with a few of my friends from college who I know are all in the same boat as me, and as the chat progresses I will continue to add their thoughts to my mind map.

The original....

so far...

The Key thoughts that have come up so far are Preparation, The Process, Success and Failure. Within these four routes all aspects of the 'Professional Auditionee's' journey can be mapped. My friends also brought up the help having agency representation has which i had completely forgotten about! Another interesting avenue that I also hadn't considered was the power shows like the X Factor and The Voice have on our industry, as peoples ideas of what this profession is like are altered considerably by the easy rise to fame portrayed in these shows.

I have started reading 'The Performing Life: A Singer's Guide to Survival' By Sharon Mabry, which gives a very truthful, if not somewhat pessimistic view on an auditionee's life.

"A singer that goes into this profession with the attitude that the performing world is fair and democratic and the most talented person always comes out on top is naive and doomed to dispair." 

I also found an article written by Hazel Davis for 'The Independent' particularly interesting in regards to the rise of X factor stars getting leading roles in west end musicals. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/career-planning/getting-job/want-to-be-a-west-end-star-you-have-to-get-used-to-being-out-of-work-2007723.html

"As well as being a great all-rounder and having star quality, to make it in the West End, says Greenway, you need to get good at being out of work. "Make sure your well-being isn't associated with how well the next audition goes, and work out how to live your life inbetween jobs, because the times out of work can be longer than the times in..."

As always, I would love to hear your views.