Short Story

The Audition

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for last Sunday’s Wordle #399.
Using the 12 prompts below, this is my story.
I believe I may have missed the deadline; my bad!

beyond ・ company ・ disappointed ・ heart ・
luck ・ music ・passed ・ six ・
socialize ・  thrilled ・ variety ・ week

Kayla was thrilled.

After an excruciatingly long week, she was called back to audition for a second time for her high school talent show. Music was her passion and she put her heart and soul into practicing her songs for the audition. As a senior, this would be Kayla’s final school show; she was filled with mixed emotions.

To make things even more interesting, anyone who made it through the final round into the talent show was eligible to try out for the town’s summer play in the grand concert hall. The idea of a being a member of a performing arts company like summer stock was Kayla’s dream, with Broadway being her ultimate goal.

The talent show auditions were by invitation only and limited to a specific category .… in this case it was female singers between the ages of 17 and 24. The director was the one who chose the songs for the auditions; no one knew which song(s) they would be asked to sing. It was nerve-wracking! Kayla practiced a variety of song styles and genres from country to hard rock to blues and even some opera.

Audition day finally arrived; Kayla felt ready but the butterflies in her stomach were doing a mad jitterbug. Stepping into the auditorium was surreal. This was a place where she and her fellow students came to socialize; now there was an eerie silence in the big room. All the girls there sat as far away from each other as possible. No one spoke; not even cell phones were in use. Everyone was too nervous.

The director walked up on stage, welcomed the group and explained how the audition process was going to work. Names would be called in random order so Kayla had no idea how long she’d have to wait. One by one the girls were called in to audition. One by one they came out, relief or dejection on their faces.. No one dared say “Good luck”, as that was considered a jinx in the theater world since ancient times. One poor girl exited the audition room in tears, beyond disappointed. It didn’t matter if she was part of the competition; Kayla’s heart went out to her.

Six long hours passed; Kayla was the last one left to audition. The director called her name and Kayla stood, summoning all her courage. With more confidence than she possessed, she walked into the tryout room and softly closed the door behind her.

NAR©2024

This is “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (an incredibly difficult song to sing) performed live by the delightful Cyndi Lauper.

MLMM Monday Wordle #399

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy (The Sicilian Storyteller), The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

28 thoughts on “The Audition”

  2. Ohh I love the way you built up the suspense. I hope that she nailed that audition.
    That’s a beautiful song indeed and yes, an incredibly different one to sing. I liked it more than the Ethel Merman version too!

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