By Nicole Falco
"I didn't expect the job. There was no one home to tell," Lubeck said. "The entire time I was writing down the information I was trying to figure out if I was dreaming or not."
It's not that Lubeck, a musical theater major, didn't have confidence in her talents, it's just that show business is not exactly the easiest business to break into.
As a member of a touring company of "South Pacific," Lubeck, 22, and the rest of the cast will be traveling and performing throughout the United States and parts of Canada from September through April 2003. Performances are scheduled in Indiana, Wyoming, Georgia, Florida, California, New York on Feb. 16, 2003 at C.W. Post's Tillis Center and more.
"Eight months of work is a blessing in the acting world," Lubeck said. "Once I come back from the tour I will have worked for eight months; then I'll have to audition again and do it all over again."
Lubeck, a Central High School graduate, wasn't the kid always putting on a show for her parents, Jill and Drew, and younger brother, Jordan, a senior at Central. Lubeck started acting and singing in community theater at 9-years-old. Her early work included "The Wizard of Oz," and "Aesop's Fables."
"When I was younger acting was just for fun," Lubeck said. "When I was 14 or 15 I decided that's what I wanted to do."
When she told others of her aspirations to make a career in the entertainment industry, she was met with skepticism.
"I got that from every single person who asked me what I was going to do in college. Little by little I proved to everyone that I had the attitude that I was going to make it," Lubeck said.
Throughout high school, first at Memorial Junior High School and then at Central, Lubeck sang, acted and danced and numerous productions including "The Wiz," "Guys and Dolls," and "Bye, Bye Birdie."
Lubeck was accepted to NYU as a voice major after a rigorous audition. Lubeck, blessed with a soprano voice, quickly changed her major to musical theater after admitting to herself that she was only pursuing the "classical thing" for everyone else but herself.
Lubeck continued honing her performance skills in shows at NYU including "Fiddler on the Roof," and "Barbary Keep." She also began going on professional auditions in her freshman year at college.
Thumbing through "Backstage," the industry newspaper, Lubeck went to numerous casting calls, mainly to get herself acquainted with the professional process.
Open auditions are known as "cattle calls," and for good reasons. The audition process is usually much less than glamorous, according to Lubeck.
"You're a number. You walk in and sing 16 bars and you walk out," Lubeck said.
Sometimes the casting directors talk right through an aspiring actor's performance, never making eye contact and never even putting their deli sandwich down.
Lubeck finally got serious about auditioning in her senior year. With her role in "South Pacific," Lubeck is pretty much set for the next eight months. As a performer with a national touring company, Lubeck will be far away from the comfort of her life in Valley Stream, but she will be gaining valuable experience.
"I always thought I wanted to do it so people knew who I was. Now it's a love for the craft more than anything else," Lubeck said.
