Auditioning for Paper Crane

And so, last night wifey & I went to the closed audition for Paper Crane, another klpac production. 

There were a couple of firsts for us: 1st time doing a cantonese monologue, 1st time singing cantonese song in an audition(wifey did mandarin), and 1st time we both didn't have to go through the choreography segment of a musical audition because they know what we are capable of.

Whatever it is, the most important thing is of course whether we would get a place in the musical. Joe talked to the both of us before we started the audition(separately of course) and it appears that we would have to wait for another production to hope for any chance of playing lead roles together.

For wifey, Joe & Faridah informed her that there are 3 female roles in the musical made it clear that she was either too young or too old any of the roles. He therefore is auditioning her to be a featured ensemble.

For me, they told me there are 4 male roles and they may cast me as one of the 2 roles whose age are closer to mine(that, or I can pass as someone younger, I dunno). Joe was correct to say that I would not settle for just an ensemble. So if I am not cast as one of the leads, I would also be offered  the featured ensemble thingy.

So what is a featured ensemble?

I googled it and found this on Yahoo! Answers:

"If you weren't called back for a lead, named role, chances are you're probably going to be put in the ensemble. It sucks, but that's theatre. If you end up getting a role as a part of the "Featured Ensemble", as opposed to a regular "Ensemble", then you're probably, but not for sure, going to be given a one-line solo or a couple speaking lines in the show. So to answer your question, if you're CAST as "Featured Ensemble", you'll probably be a more prominent ensemble member." 
~ CourneysGoingToBroadway

And so, here lies our dilemma. It is for certain that we will be getting a call from Faridah, but do we want to do another musical as ensemble again? While it will be nice to be working with the likes of Joe, Mervyn & Lex again, wifey & I are looking for more challenge(or career development) and to be a featured ensemble, it is very similar to being just a regular ensemble. I want the challenge for performing in an english/cantonese fusion musical and I am sure she is too. Therefore, we will need to discuss this next week whether we will be doing this or not. If both of us are offered featured ensemble, I reckon at least 1 of us will not be accepting the offer.

If we say no to this, it is not because we are too proud to be an ensemble - ensemble can be fun too, but it's because we have just made career changes and we are still in the process of sorting things out in our work life. If there be another interruption in the form of a musical, then it must be worth the EXTRA effort we both would have to put in...

Decision, decision, decision....