The Audition

Saturday, January 7th, 2015, was here before I knew it.  After getting some hugs and well-wishes from my family, I packed my keyboard in my dad's Chevy dooly and we were off!  Good thing my dad grabbed my audition sheet for me.....I think I was a little out of it. ;)  Since we were making good time, dad and I stopped in at my grandparents and chatted with them for a few minutes.  My dad's brother, who also lives in northern VA, was getting his house ready to put on the market.  He had a bunch of stuff he was trying to get rid of, and since we love free goodies from friends and family, my dad brought along his 16ft. trailer for my uncle to fill up. :)  I followed dad to my uncle's house in my Grandpa's cube so that we could leave the truck and trailer there for my uncle to fill up while we were gone.  Plus, grandpa's cube is better on gas. ;)  Once the truck and trailer were dropped off we headed towards the Double Tree by Hilton, where the audition was being held.  We arrived early, at 12:30pm (my audition was scheduled for 1pm).  As we were walking in there was a girl about my age walking out with her parents and she wished me luck.  Apparently the auditions had been going on all morning. When we got in, there were about 20 people in line in front of me.  The line led to the registration table.  After asking a few questions, dad decided to go back out and get my keyboard for me (we hadn't been sure when to bring it in or where to put it).  While he was retrieving my keyboard, I struck up a conversation with the girl in line behind me.  She was a little shorter than me, with dark hair and eyes she was very pretty, and looked to be in her early 20's. Her name was Gabriella, and I found out that she was from Bulgaria.  She lives in the states now, and was trying out for acting, modeling, and dancing. :)  We joked about my dad being my bellhop and she asked if I slipped him tips every once in a while. I said no, but he'd probably prefer food anyway.  She agreed and we started naming foods we thought a guy would like: beef jerkey, Reeses peanut butter cups, and actually, we decided, a guy would probably eat anything. ;) Dad was back in with my keyboard by now and she told him she thought it was very sweet of him to come as my escort/bellhop. ;)  We were probably in line for about 10 minutes before we got to the table and I received my number: 210.  Then they took a picture of me real quick and we got into another line where we waited for maybe another 10-20 minutes.  At this point, there were about 800 of us (auditioners and supporters).  They directed all of us to a conference room where we sat down in number order.  At this time, one of AMTC's scout's, Mr. Nat, came in and led us in prayer.  Then we all stood and sang a hymn together. As I stated in my last post, one of my main concerns about AMTC was that they would be Christian's in name only.  But as this meeting progressed, it became very evident that the people with AMTC were not just professing Christians, but sold-out, on fire for Christ, Bible-believing, God-honoring Christians.  And I was thrilled, to say the least.  I was surrounded by my family in Christ, all of us seeking to heed God's call on our lives and bring glory to Him; what more could I want?  After we watched a video clip on AMTC, Ms. Carey Lewis, the founder, came up and spoke to us.  One of the first things she said was that they were not "normal" Christians, they were not carnal Christians, they were not just "Christians", but that they were Bible-believing Christians who believed in the infallible word of God.  Amen to that one!  She proceeded to tell us how she when she started AMTC she wasn't a Christian and how for 20+ years, as AMTC grew, she stayed that way. But then, at the age of 51, she was burned out and at the end of her line. That's when she found and accepted Christ.  And it flipped her life and her business around.  At the time, AMTC stood for "Actors, Models, and Talent Competition" but after she accepted Christ, the Lord told her (while she was on the treadmill, actually ;), to change the "C" to Christ.  So now, AMTC stands for "Actors, Models, and Talent for Christ."  Crazy, huh?  And despite her family and even Christian friends telling her not to change the name (or she'd lose her non-Christian business partners), she followed the Lord and went through with it.  And out of the 155 some odd number of professionals who help her business be what it is today, only ONE left.  Talk about the Lord's hand of protection. So now, they not only prepare and professionally train people for the media according to the world's standards, they also train and prepare them spiritually so that they can go out as missionaries in one of the most influential places on earth: our media.  You can read about their history here: http://www.amtcworld.com/about-us/our-history  She also quoted lots of scriptures and used the parable of the talents as an analogy of us using our talents to profit the Lord.  Needless to say, after the 1 1/2 hour session, I no longer doubted where they stood in regards to Christ. :)  And I was excited.  After the session ended we separated into 4 different groups depending on what we were auditioning for, I think.  My "scout" was Mr. Nat.  He was the man who had opened the session in prayer and worship.  We were each going in one at a time.  It was once again by number order, and I ended up being last in our group. :)  We waited in line for probably 45 minutes before it was my turn to go in.  Eek! :D  I'm so thankful to the Lord that I wasn't nervous.  I figured since I was doing this to bring glory to God that if it was where He wanted me, it would work out that way.  And if not, if I failed, He must have a better purpose in mind for me.  So no need to be nervous- it was all in His hands. :)  I walked in and as daddy set up my keyboard for me, I handed Mr. Nat my registration paper.  Then I stood on the tape and read a prepared script.  Now, I had signed up only for singing/songwriting mostly because that was where I had the most experience.  But according to AMTC, acting is the basis for all fields of media.  No matter if you are a dancer, singer, actor, model, or anything else, you need to know how to act.  How to show, not only in the words of your song (in my case), but in your physical actions, what you are feeling.  So Mr. Nat told me he was going to put me down for acting as well.  I told him I was totally cool with that.  I'll go wherever the Lord leads, even if it's not what I first planned on auditioning for. :)  Going off of the top of my head, this was my script: "It's not like my dog cares if his food is organic.  Jake's ideal day is digging through the garbage and drinking out of the toilet.  But I care.  That's why I buy him solid gold dog food.  I tried it myself.  Pretty good."  Now, you could read this like it's written; without expression.  But that's not what an actor is supposed to do.  An actor or actress envisions the situation in his or her head and places themselves in the speaker's shoes.  Basically, I had to become the person with the dog.  And so I gave it my best shot. :)  It was fun. :)  Then I went over to my keyboard and played most of my song, "Why We Worship".  Due to time restraints, I was unable to do the whole song.  I messed up once or twice on the piano part, and maybe once in my voice.  Overall, I was happy with my performance, though. :)  You see, I had a slight cold, so I was very happy that the Lord kept my nose from being all stuffy and my throat from being sore or dried out. :)  After my song was done, dad and I walked up to the table where Mr. Nat was sitting and he handed us a pamphlet with some information concerning the SHINE conference (the end goal if you pass the auditions).  He told us that if I passed the audition, I would get a call the next day between 8am-3pm.  Of course, they hoped we'd be in church (as it would be Sunday), but that we'd call them back as soon as we could. :)  If we got a call-back, we'd need to come back to the place of the audition for my first training session (called an IGNITE).  If I didn't pass the auditions, I would get one of two emails.  The first email is a, "Thank you for auditioning.  While you didn't pass the preliminary auditions, we think you could make it if you had some training.  Here are some classes hosted by AMTC that you can attend to add some "polish" to your talent."  Something like that. :)  The second email would be more like a, "Thank you for auditioning.  Unfortunately you were unable to pass the auditions," sort of thing.  They said you would receive the latter email for one of two reasons (or both).  Those reasons being 1) You didn't have talent in your chosen area, or 2) You were prideful.  You cannot properly serve and bring glory to Christ with either of those things.  So after receiving those words of advice/information from Mr. Nat, we left and headed straight to Sakura (a Japanese steakhouse), which was the restaurant my cousin, Diana, had chosen for her 19th birthday.  It was delicious, to say the least. :D  Thanks to Uncle Greg for the delicious dinner! :) My Uncle Greg's fiance', Tonya, and her parents came as well. :) It was the first time I had met Tonya's parents and I liked them almost immediately. :)  After dinner, we all went back to my grandparents house for cake. :)  After the festivities were over, dad and I headed home, making it home and in bed by around 2am. The excitement of the day didn't keep me from falling right to sleep, though- I was tired and was only too glad to be back in bed! ;)  Tomorrow I would find out my results!

~Alexis Noel