Triple Sensation random thoughts

Triple Sensation finished airing on CBC this past weekend, and for those of you who don't know, I got to go to Montreal early this year for the second round of auditions. Now that it's all over, I thought I would write down some more details of what the process was like for me, and a review of sorts of the actual TV show.

The first audition, in Halifax, was not filmed. I had to sing one song from a list of possible selections, and one monologue of my own choice. I did "Reviewing the Situation" from Oliver, one of my favourites, largely because it's a character song and not just one note emotionally. The monologue I used was a piece I'd done for Nigel Bennett at the ATF, a comic bit from the film "How To Get Ahead In Advertising". I did well with that audition, and was selected to go to Montreal for the callback.

This was sweet. Not only did the folks at Triple Sensation pay for my plane ticket, they put me up at a swank hotel in downtown Montreal, right next to Chinatown and a 20 minute stroll from the Old Port. That, and no one at the hotel complained that Erin was staying with me in a room that was technically a single. :) Erin and I had an entire day to just wander around the city before auditions started the next day.

For the second audition, I sang "The Impossible Dream" which ended up being entirely fitting, and I did one of the Chorus parts from Henry V: "Now it is that time of night, when creeping murmur and the poring dark fill the wide vessel of the universe..." I thought this segment of the callback went very well, up until the point when they asked to see me enjoying myself. I was enjoying myself! Anyway, I got through it just dandy. I must say though, I do find that sort of audition to be awfully artificial. I would much rather do a cold read of scene with someone else than do monologues - acting is, in many ways, more about listening and relating than about going "TA DA!"

The dance call was the next day, and my thoughts on that catastrophe are here.

Anyway, I tuned in to the show over the last few weeks, just to see if anyone I knew made it through - turns out, one of the gals I hung out with after the dance call won the 2nd place prize! Go Anwyn! There's a picture out there somewhere of the two of us chillin'.

I only watched the last episode all the way through, which was very cool. I totally called the prize winners, though not the exact placements. Thought most of the song selections for the final performance were unfortunate: Gershwin is just overdone, period. I would have much preferred to see character songs rather than standards anyway. The Shakespeare scenes felt forced, aside from Anwyn and John-Michael's Kate and Petruchio, which is always fun. I wish some of the others had taken their scenes as far as those two did. Pierre Trudeau - I mean, Colm Feore showing up was kind of random. All in all, it was very well put together and tastefully produced, and I'm happy to have been part of the process.