Second (& last) audition for the Classe Libre at Cours Florent

Second round of the audition for the Classe Libre at Cours Florent is done!

I think it went pretty well, anyway no matter the result, I'm happy this is over. I'm satisfied of what I've done & since I had the first round in February, it's already been way too long to wait for the second one in May.

Now I can tell you what I chose to prepare. I wanted something original for the jury not to be annoyed by always seeing the same scenes...

I had to prepare a dialogued scene from the universal theatrical repertoire from the 16th to the 19th century.

I must admit that I'm not very cultivated when it comes to classical theatre, but I found the universal theatrical repertoire on Google books and browsing it, I found several pieces of Favart, a French author from the 16th century, I liked a lot. I chose an extrait from "Les amours de Bastien & Bastienne" a comical opera. It's a very naive and cute love story between two shepherds and there's a curious "magician" who helps their love to triumph.

My friend Joce played the magician and I obviously played the little shepherdess Bastienne.

Then I had to prepare a monologue from the XXI century and I with no doubt chose the very funny monologue from "Pour quelque centimètres de neige", a play I was performing in a couple of years ago.

Finally as I'm not French I had to prepare also a scene in my mother tongue. At the beginning I prepared a scene from an old movie "Agnes of God" translated in Italian. It was a monologue of an insane nun recalling her vision of Virgin Mary.

But two days before the audition I was feeling completely empty & tired of this monologue. So at the end I performed a monologue in Neapolitan from Eduardo de Filippo's play "Filumena Marturano".

(Note that Filumena is an middle age woman and if you want to perform one of her monologues, the only one adapted to a young woman is the "Madonne delle Rose" one. In this monologue she recalls why she decided to keep her first baby. In the play, when she tells this episode she is still middle age, but at the time when it happened she was a young woman, so it's easy to adapt).

It's a hard monologue, but I really felt it and I was very happy in performing it.

All in all I'm very happy with my audition.

Like the first round, there was not too much to wait (maybe 15 minutes), we were in the same room for the audition and as props in the audition room there's a desk & some chairs. Instead of one member, there were 3 people in the jury this time.

I was just shocked by the coldness of the jury. Especially a woman who asked me a lot of questions, one after the other, but really like if she didn't care. I was so oppressed by all those questions I forgot for a moment the name of the author of "Pour quelques centimètres de neige".

There were 3 people in the jury and they were more attentive to me than during the first round. Although in the first round jury was nicer and less speed.

Everything is really quick indeed, there is no time between a scene and another and one really feels the fact that the jury is in a hurry and one must change very quickly and waste no time in between the scenes.

Also they cut the dialogue scene before the end although it lasted less then the 3 maximum minutes required.

So I really speeded up then with the monologues as I didn't want the jury to stop me before the end, but it was a bit of a pity...

It's nice when the jury makes a candidate feel comfortable but it's not necessary... But here it was the opposite and that is unnecessary too.

Even Joce who does stand-up comedy and is used to competition was puzzled...

Also he told me one of the men in the jury was looking at me with what seemed great interest, so this should be a good point.

Anyway, let's wait and see what's next ;)

PS. End of suspense: I already received an email telling me I'm not admitted to the 3rd and final round. 

I'm a bit disappointed... I really would like to know why or what the other candidates did... As I really think I did something good.

When I auditioned for the same thing some of years ago, I know that I wasn't well prepared, the texts weren't adapted to me and I was not that experienced...

But as of today I really would like to know...

Anyway, I'm not very happy now, but I'm sure better things will come...

Colombia here we come!!! :)

Going to Colombia on Friday!!! 

Travel is just so wonderful, to discover all the beautiful landscapes, people and cultures the world has to offer...

And to travel with my marvelous hubby is just so much more wonderful :)

This will be the first time in South America together :)

It will be a short visit though, but we'll make the most of it anyway ;) 

I just finished to organize our wild and sporty trip (and it wasn't an easy task: as Colombia opened up to tourism not so long ago, there is no much information): after a visit to some friends of ours that live in Bogota, we'll fly to the Caribbean coast to discover Tayorna Park, its beaches and wildlife, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, where we'll wonder among mountains and waterfalls, and Cartagena, apparently one of the most beautiful colonial cities in South America.

And then before coming back home, we'll have a last quick stop in Salento to discover the coffee region and the Cocora Valley.

Can't wait to explore all that! :)

Skiing Mègeve

What's better than a ski holiday ?

A ski holiday with (almost) all your friends, waking up everyday to a bright sun & perfect snow!

Oh yes & I forgot: the view over the Mont Blanc from the chalet's windows wasn't bad either ;)

^The Mont Blanc turns pink at sunset! ;)

One of our close friends has a family chalet in Mègeve and kindly invited us for a ski holiday.

The chalet was so nice & peaceful, all in wood inside out, it was built by our friend's grandfather and it nestles among the trees in a little forest.

I've never been in Mègeve before & I really liked it for skiing: there are a lot of slopes and the ski area is very large so that you can change scenery everyday.

Slopes are large & long and there are many for all level skiers: some very nice, steep black ones, lots of beautiful red slopes, blue ones zigzagging among the trees end even a couple of green ones so that even beginners can have fun.

And there are free photo-booths to take selfie :)

Although that didn't stop us to take our own selfies ;p

As I mentioned before, we were blessed all week long by a warm sunny weather, honestly it was the first time I was hot skiing, and we made the most of it, skiing everyday until the slopes close.

We used an app to take our time, that has been our fun of the week, and our craziest friend made 106 km/h.

I only could make 80 km/h before fear caught up with me and forced me to break.

We alternate picnics in the sun at lunchtime (and sledding on trash bags)...

& sunny lunches at altitude restaurants, the funniest & most entertaining one being, with no doubt, La Folie Douce: music, show & dancing right on the slopes!

Exhausted by all the skiing, we spent mostly all our nights at the chalet, relaxing in front of the cracking fire with a nice cocktail for aperitif 

And enjoying cheese in all of its forms based dinners: tartiflette, raclette, tartiflette again...

Chatting, laughing & playing Trivial Pursuit after dinner :)

I said the we spent mostly all our nights at the chalet, but not all of them: we also went out to have a proper night out in Mègeve.

We visited the little village which is super cute, nicely lighted & decorated & there's a small river in the middle of it.

I'm just wondering why there were Christmas trees everywhere although we were end of March... I guess Mègeve municipality is even slower than me when it comes to take away Christmas decorations ;)

We had dinner in a fancy & cosy restaurant "Au Coeur de Megève", where we had some more cheese: its speciality being the fondue!

After dinner we went to the casino, where I can say, in all modesty, that I played roulette for the first time with some exceptionally good results... in other words, I won!!!

A perfect end to a perfect holiday ;)