While some seniors try to land interviews with firms on Wall Street, two juniors have been invited to audition on Broadway. Emily Borromeo '09 and Federico Rodriguez '09 are active participants in Brown theater, most recently performing in leading roles in "City of Angels" - and last month both auditioned for Broadway musicals.
Last spring, Rodriguez auditioned for the Tony-award winning musical "Spring Awakening." He estimated that 500 actors auditioned at the open casting call in Boston for future spots in the Broadway production and on the show's national tour.
After an initial callback immediately after his audition, Rodriguez did not hear from representatives of "Spring Awakening" until about three weeks ago. "They called me, and they said they needed a replacement for the part of Hanschen," he said, describing the part as a "challenging role. He's a teenager who likes to mess with people. The director described him as a future serial killer."
In late October, Rodriguez traveled to New York City, where he competed with eight other actors in a third round of auditions. This callback was broken up into two segments. First, the choreographer taught the actors a dance from the play. After a break, the actors returned to find the musical director, three producers and actor Blake Daniel, who currently plays the role of Ernst in the musical, all in the room. The second part of the audition involved reading a scene from the play with Daniel.
"When I was done, I felt like I had just gotten off of a roller coaster," Rodriguez said. "You're seeing a lot of important people and having to put your whole body, your whole mind and your whole voice into this thing and do your absolute best."
Rodriguez described the directors and choreographer as down-to-earth, even though they were in charge of a major Broadway production. "At that level you expect people to be really pretentious and it actually ends up being the opposite," he said.
Though the Spring Awakening audition was the first time he progressed through numerous callbacks, Rodriguez has auditioned for Broadway musicals before. Over the summer he auditioned for "Hairspray" as well as "The Grinch." Currently, he is shooting an independent film, which takes him to New York on the weekends, where he auditions as much as possible. "It's a never-ending process," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said he would probably take a leave from Brown if he were offered the role of Hanschen. However, he knows that his degree in computer science will be valuable in the future as well. "I think that computer science will always be there to make a living off of. Theater is very difficult and my computer science background will be really helpful," he said. As of now though, Rodriguez is still waiting to hear about the Hanschen part.
Borromeo's Broadway audition experience was markedly different from Rodriguez's experience. Borromeo auditioned for "Rent" in early October, skipping the first step of typical auditions. "Normally, you go to audition and then after that there's callbacks. I just went straight to callbacks," Borromeo explained. Jed Resnick '07, who played the role of Mark in the national tour of Rent, gave the directors Borromeo's contact information when he heard that a role had become available.
Borromeo said she was skeptical at first of the unknown number that called to tell her of the audition. "I wasn't even sure if it was a legitimate casting company," she said. But the call was genuine, and Borromeo went to audition for the part of Alexi Darling and as an understudy for the part of Mimi Marquez.
The day of the audition, Borromeo skipped her classes and took the train to New York. At the audition, Borromeo learned dance combinations while the directors judged the actresses on both their technique and the "rawness" of their personalities.
Like Rodriguez, Borromeo was pleasantly surprised by the positive attitude she found at the professional level. "It was a very fun audition. Very painless, actually. I expected it to be a lot more cutthroat and a lot more competitive," she said. Borromeo said she felt as though the other girls were really rooting for one another.
Like Rodriguez, Borromeo has not heard back from "Rent," but she said it was unlikely she had been cast for the part. Borromeo said she would not be overly disappointed if she did not land her first major role on Broadway. "I don't particularly think "Rent" speaks to me," she said, though auditioning was an "invaluable experience and an incredible opportunity."
Borromeo plans to pursue a career in musical theater after Brown, though she is a commerce, organizations and entrepreneurship concentrator.
