On a crisp autumn morning, Brian stepped out of the 66th Street–Lincoln Center subway station, hearing the crunch of golden leaves underfoot. The cool air had a refreshing bite that helped him shake off his nerves as he navigated New York City’s busy streets. With his heart pounding, he approached the grand façade of the Juilliard auditorium, notebook in arm, for his audition…
Brian had been in the city for a couple of months and had used the time to get his bearings and rehearse. What he hadn’t known on his second day in town, when he brought his paperwork to the pre-screening office on the Juilliard campus, was that to attend, he would have to audition before a panel of judges and that he would not only have to play a piece on the piano but also act out a scene from a play. He also learned that the school would assign which song and theatrical work Brian could perform, and that the piece/scene selection process at the audition would be random, forcing the auditionee to learn the entire thing!
Brian was assigned Beethoven’s “Für Elise” for the musical portion of the audition, which was a no-brainer for him. He just sat at the piano at Trude Heller’s after hours and worked it out. But acting?! He hadn’t acted since he was eight; he could never remember his lines, and he just plain sucked at it! Brian had to think quickly, so he asked around the nightclub for any acting courses he could take. Someone steered him toward a studio just a subway ride away on Bank Street…