My Journey to the Job

Welcome! To properly commence this blogging journey, I thought it would be fitting to start at the very beginning–my beginning. Let me take you on my journey to this job.  

Where it started 

One of my earliest memories connected to performing stems from when I was about four years old. I received a flashy standing microphone for Christmas and was over the moon. Still unable to properly read or write, I grabbed a notebook and scribbled down what I thought were the lyrics of the song ‘Spring’ by the group of the same name. I remember feeling immense pride of my supposed literacy and singing the song at the top of my lungs in the dining room. After that, music and performing slowly but surely became a more prominent and constant presence in my life.

By the age of eight, I joined my local acting group. At twelve, I started singing lessons, and that is where it all truly began for me. The teacher knew of a place in Sint Niklaas, Belgium, called Jeugdtheater Ondersteboven, that she knew they organized musical theater lessons on weekends and a yearly week-long musical theater camp in summer. I went home, applied for summer camp, and saw that they were going to put on their own production of Jason Robert Brown’s “13, the musical”. I was late to apply for the auditions, but they were gracious enough to let me come regardless and I ended up landing the role of Lucy at age fourteen. After a number of summer camps and a series of Amateur Musical productionsI met a friend in 2016 who was studying musical theater at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.

Hold up, this could be my job?

I was a little lost in terms of career, and secondary school graduation was impending. Looking back, I don’t think it was ever a conscious decision; it was just right. I was going to apply for musical school. 

In May of 2017 I got accepted to the Bachelor of Musical at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels alongside my best friend, and so started four years of ups and many, many downs.

I actually almost quit my training. 

At my very first evaluation at school, I was told these words: “Lyssa, this was insufficient. We think we might have made the wrong decision accepting you in our program.”

Ouch.

Looking back, I think this was my first real lesson in tenacity and perseverance. I pulled through, nodded in agreement and stood up for myself when I had to. To be honest, I kind of lost myself and my love for performing while at school, but I will tell you more about that some other time. 

I thought I had passed the toughest roadblock when the teachers changed their minds about me and saw my potential, but after two years of semi-smooth sailing the entire world got slapped in the face: Covid-19 was here. Oh, crap.

See, this was the situation I was in: the way my school works, the third year is where things really start to feel real. You get to play public performances that anyone can come watch, not just the people from school, you audition for internships in professional productions that will play during your fourth and final year and you start to meet and make connections with people in the professional field. All of that was taken away. We all got locked in our homes filming ballet videos in our kitchen. I saw how my opportunities to receive footing disappear. (One instance was particularly bad; the production of The Sound of Music I was supposed to take part in canceled its entire run due to Covid, and I found out through their social media announcement, nothing got formally communicated to the cast). Graduating in 2021, I assumed that there would be no opportunity for me to start working right away, since lots of shows either got canceled or postponed because of Covid, so I auditioned for and got accepted to the Fontys Master programme in Muziektheater. Then, however, my life took an unexpected turn. 

Where it headed

“Auditions for RENT the musical!” I read on my Instagram. My head started spinning. Where is this coming from? When are they playing this? Might I have a chance? 

There was one problem, however. The master’s programme I wanted to commit to did not allow for doing any creative work while attending. I had to make a decision; do I stick to my master, or take my chance at booking my first job? Well, going to an audition doesn’t necessarily mean booking a job, so why not try? So, I grabbed my laptop and applied, a few days late…

(In writing it down and reflecting upon it I notice now that the two most important moments in my musical theater life have to do with me applying for an audition too late)

I was invited. I went. I booked it. I could hardly believe it. Twenty-one years old, barely graduated (my class’s graduation got postponed to September because of Covid) and I booked a lead in one of the most iconic musicals ever! With a heavy and anxious heart, I wrote my supervisor at the master and told him I had booked a job and would not be coming to Fontys after all. All of the Fontys voice teachers ended up coming to watch the show because there were a ton of alumni in it. After the show, as I was enjoying a Fritz Kola (after-show bar is also a theme I will someday delve deeper into), I saw their imposing group of people come my way. I felt myself becoming smaller with every step they took, until they all stood around me in a half-circle, smiled, and said: “You made the right decision.”

Excuse me, huh?

I could not believe my ears. They told me how impressed they were by my performance and the show in general, and that I was welcome to return to the master if I ever wanted to. Of course I wanted to! My plan was to finish the contract of RENT, work a side job and get to the master in May of 2022, since I still believed there to be no chance for me to book another job until everything Covid-related had settled. How wrong I was… 

Where I changed course

The plan was clear!
1. Finish RENT in November

2. Work until April

3. Start the master in May

4. Get the masters degree, build connections and make sure that by the time you have that diploma there will be enough opportunities  to try and get a foot in the door somewhere in the Netherlands or Belgium.

Then, somewhere near the end of February of 2022, I received an e-mail: “New casting! Stage Entertainment is casting Mamma Mia! the musical in Hamburg”!

Ha, I thought, why not apply? I won’t get invited anyway. 

You see, I had applied a handful of times for auditions in Germany; Tanz der Vampire, Kudamm ‘56, Wicked… All those applications were sent back with either “thank you, we’re not interested” or “thank you, but the position you want to audition for will not become available”. Why would this time be different? 

I had recently set up a new account for my professional correspondence, but as you can imagine, there was not a lot going on there. 

One day, I randomly decided to open the spam folder on this new e-mail account to see if there was any junk e-mail to get rid of. And there it was: “Stage Entertainment would like to invite you to the first round of auditions for Mamma Mia! in Hamburg. Please choose an appointment via the link below.” 

Oh. My. God.

This had landed in my spam almost two weeks ago! Heart pounding, I opened the link to book an appointment and saw there was one left: March 17. Four days away.

Oh. My. GOD. 

I screamed for my mom downstairs, scrambled to book train tickets and a hotel room and started learning the heaps of material (in German, a language I barely spoke at that point!). The night before my train journey to Hamburg I spent at my aunt and uncle’s house because it was more convenient for the journey. I traveled the day before my audition (always travel the day before your audition if you have to go far, guys) and it was–a disaster. 

My first train had a delay, so I missed my first transfer. Guess when my next possible train would be? An hour later. And guess what happened an hour later? It didn’t show up! I was close to tears, convinced this was the universe’s way of telling me that this was a bad idea. (I mean, three strikes and you’re out, right? First the e-mail ended in spam, then my train connection to Germany was delayed, then my next possible connection got canceled? Surely this was all just a big mistake)

In despair, I called my mom and my best friend, contemplating whether or not I should continue the journey. Their reply was unanimous: give it one more chance. If this next train doesn’t show up, you turn around. So I listened to them, and the train came. I made it to Hamburg and to my first audition for Stage Entertainment Deutschland. I got invited to callbacks two weeks later. And five days after that, I received a call. I’ll never forget it. I was sitting pantless on my bed after having returned from working at a local boutique, distracted by TikTok while I actually wanted to dress in my comfy clothes when suddenly a German phone number appeared on the top of my phone display.

“Congratulations! We would love to offer you first cast Ali with cover Sophie. We will send over contract details later today.”

And that was that. I had booked my first big–huge–job. I jumped up and down and signed the contract, packed my little car to the brim and left behind everything I had ever known in the summer of 2022, destination Hamburg. There, I started a journey of intense experiences and self-discovery. Again, I thought I had it figured out; I would finish the contract and move back home. It would be a great experience, and I truly didn’t believe I would get to stay. It all felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Then came the announcement for Tarzan.

Tarzan.

A show notorious for being incredibly hard on the body. An injury-inducing monster of a production, but one that undeniably connects everyone that has experienced it. Being the Disney movie released in the year I was born (1999), I have always joked that it was “my” movie. I had to take my shot. No way this could work out again, right? 

But it did.

After four rounds of auditioning spread out over a total of six months, I got the job. It was going to be grueling, eight shows every week, being in the ensemble and having two roles to cover, but I was up for the task. And when the offer for an extension came, I gladly accepted. I even got to become a swing! Something I had never experienced before, but I felt would come naturally to me. Then, somewhere in that second year, there was a new decision to make: would I join the production in going to Hamburg, or say goodbye? I contemplated for a while, but knew in my heart it was time for me to move on to other things. I will admit, it is a very unnatural thing to step away from security. To actively choose to be without a job. But I knew it was the right thing for me. I went to audition after audition and was met with rejection after rejection. It stung a little, of course, the ego never likes to be rejected, but somewhere among the mess of sheet music and plane tickets to Hamburg and Amsterdam I found peace: maybe it’s fine. Maybe this is how it’s meant to be. Maybe it’s not that bad to not have a job that is eight shows, six days a week. At that point, I had been working without a real break (I had exactly seven days to pack and move my life from Hamburg to Stuttgart between Mamma Mia and Tarzan) for three years. Maybe now, it was time for me? 

And then I got a call.

Stage HQ in Hamburg called me to inform me there would be secluded auditions for Anna in Frozen, playing in Stuttgart in the theater opposite Tarzan. They told me they were aware that I would still be in Tarzan when the contract for Frozen would commence, but that–if I were to be chosen–there would surely be a way to work around that dual commitment. So, I auditioned one more time…

And got rejected. 

Yep! I auditioned, waited close to three weeks to hear “I’m so sorry, but the team did not choose you”. To be completely transparent, I did not really mind. Up until that point, I’ve had a complicated relationship with Frozen (which only got more complicated after I auditioned in the Netherlands just two months prior), and it wasn’t a show I was dying to do. So I thanked them for the opportunity and for considering me for such a prominent position and went on with my life, until I was called back about a week later, with the question I was still interested in the position and if I would like to attend a work session with the creatives at the Apollo Theater in Stuttgart. Um… sure? So on a sunny day in May I waddled over to the other side of the street to do the same thing I had done about a month ago at that point. I played my scenes, I sang the songs, I thanked them for seeing me and walked into the sunshine to enjoy my holiday that had started that day. Two days later, as I was perusing the city of Cologne with my best friend, I looked at my buzzing phone to see an e-mail: “Offer / Eiskönigin Stuttgart”. I almost choked.

Me? A Disney Princess? Even though I had made my peace with not having a job and even started making a few plans, there was no way I was going to pass on this opportunity (I just got a new piercing an hour and half ago, do you think that would be a problem? I asked myself in disbelief). So my best friend and I searched for the nearest bar and celebrated my staying in Stuttgart for another six months at least. 

Soon after, I started the intense process of rehearsing one show, while playing another and being sneaky about it because nobody was allowed to know that I was doing this yet. I cannot explain the amount of relief I felt when it was finally announced that I would be the new alternate Anna and I didn’t have to lie anymore! 

So after about a month of rehearsals and one month of playing two different Disney shows at the same time and saying goodbye to Tarzan at the beginning of September 2025, I was finally able to fully settle into my new space.

Where I am going

And that brings us to today! I love the role of Anna, and I am loving life as an alternate. Playing an average of two shows a week has really given me a little bit of my sense of freedom back. Of course I spend a lot of time in the theater, but knowing I'll be on standby in the evening gives my brain a little more space to breathe and get more things done during the day like an odd trip to Ikea or a tougher work-out. It has given me the opportunity to feel active enough to start endeavors like this! People often ask me if it doesn’t get boring sometimes, but after five months my reply still is: no, not really! Every week is different, and not being on every day keeps the show exciting, so I still feel lots of giddy joy and “oh sweet, I get to do it again!”. Of course there’s days where I really don’t feel like doing it, but even those days I have finished the show with a smile and energy. That’s what Frozen does for me, that’s what this job does. And I am incredibly fortunate to have been–as we call it–booked and blessed for almost four years non-stop. 

So, that is basically it! My journey to the job. Of course I have cut some corners, and don’t be fooled by the allround positivity of my story–if I would have gone into detail about every show I auditioned for where I didn’t get invited or got cut after round one or two, I would be writing a novel, not a blog. But don’t fret, I will be diving into the endless hole of disappointment that is connected to this job soon enough.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I hope to see you again! 

Liefs,
Lyssa 💕