Tiffany Haas - Waiting in the Wings: How to Launch Your Performing Career on Broadway and Beyond

There I was in New York City, no longer as a tourist but now a resident. I called my parents after every audition to give them the complete play-by-playthe good and, on this day, the bad.

I didnt get cast again, I said on the phone through big, heartfelt, blubbery tears. I think I should come home. Its never going to happen here for me.

It was my third audition since Id moved. All my life had been in preparation for thissince I was five years old and started putting on impromptu concerts of selections from Annie in the living room (red wig and all). Dinner at our house was never just a meal; it was dinner and a show. I knew at a very young age that I loved performing. I had never wanted to do anything else besides make it to New York and be a Broadway star. And now I was finally here in the city that never sleeps, and it was more of a struggle than Id imagined.

One of my first Broadway auditions was for Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Id read the casting breakdown, and it was just perfect for me; they were looking for a young brunette soprano ingnue type, spunky and charismatic and just my height.

This is me! I thought. Ive got this. I walked into that building filled to the brim with confidence until the moment I rounded the corner and saw a hundred other young women who looked exactly like me. All of a sudden, I realized this was not high school or college with a few people vying for the lead role. This was the real deal where there were literally hundreds of qualified people for every role.

There we all were, young brunette soprano ingnues, all holding our books of sheet music, all wearing flowing dresses. I got my first reality check. This is something we all know about before moving to NYC. We hear the stories about thousands of people waiting to be seen, or lines wrapped around a building for an audition, but when you see it with your own eyes, it hits you in the face! I had a moment where I thought, Huh, so those stories are true.

I knew the real world of professional theatre was going to be competitive, but until I stood in that hallway surrounded by talented women, I didnt realize how competitive. I had no idea how I would ever stand out, and in the end, I didntI didnt even get a callback for the role I was so sure was meant to be mine.

Listen, my dad said. You have three people involved in this career, and two of us are not worried. Keep going.

It was a blessing I knew not everyone hadtwo supportive parents who never once told me that I should have a fallback career. (Youll get their take on things later on in the book.) They believed in me more than I believed in myself at times, and they reminded me to persevere, stay committed, and move on to the next audition. And so I did!

Seventy-two of them, in fact, before my big break.

There are lots of ways to get into a performing career, but I come at it with my own life experiences and biases about what worked for me. We are all different, but the lessons I learned are applicable to anyone determined to succeed.

New York City was a long way from my home in Virginia, and a much different atmosphere. I grew up in my mothers dance studio, Academy of Dance. I began taking classes at the age of three and spent much of my childhood training as a competitive dancer, but I loved to sing just as much. My mom had a clear understanding of the dance world, but the singing world was new to all of us. Finding someone who would teach voice lessons to an eight-year-old was certainly a challenge. My mom had a dear friend who was a highly accomplished voice teacher, a former Miss Alabama and a true Southern belle who wore shoulder pads with everything. She didnt teach children under the age of twelve, so my mom asked her to meet with me one time as a personal favor. When the lesson ended, I ran out to my moms car with a handwritten note. (No cell phones or texting at that time.)