I’ve told so many in-depth stories about getting into BMI, and getting my job and all of that, that I don’t think I have just one coherent short-ish version. So, here’s that. (If nothing else, just to somehow help me wrap my head around it!)
I applied for BMI at the end of July, or maybe August 1st? Whatever was the final day to submit was the day I submitted. (Waiting ’til that deadline, eeesh!)
On August 24th I went to see Up Here at La Jolla Playhouse. And that’s when I met Kristen Anderson-Lopez who may or may not be responsible for getting my into the BMI Musical Theater Workshop – I really don’t know.
(I just looked back in the blog and realized that somehow in the midst of all these stories – I never told this one!)
She asked me if I wrote musical theater, and I said something like, “I’m trying!” She said, “Don’t try. Just do it!”
And I told her I was doing it. I’d written full length shows, and even put one up. I applied to BMI a million times. She told me to send her my stuff because she knew the people who ran BMI. I got her assistant’s email address, and sent her some stuff that night.
And lo and behold, this was the year I got an audition… But when I wrote her assistant to say thanks for doing that, her assistant wrote back saying she had no idea if Kristen had ever looked at it and/or called anybody or not. Nobody knows! Maybe it was me, maybe it was her, maybe it was luck. Either way, I got my audition, and I had a lucky interaction with Kristen Anderson-Lopez along the way.
My audition got scheduled for September 8. That was the day I’d requested when we got 3 options, because it was the day after a holiday, so I was only going to need to miss one day of work – plus I could really do a whole weekend in New York.
My best friend (and my high school theater teacher) came out to New York with me. It was really a supremely beautiful time, and I wrote about it at length here.
On the 10th, I got my acceptance letter as I left a workout class, and she was the first person I called.
And when I got that acceptance email – well, that’s when things went crazy.
And this is where I’ll pick up next time.