You can’t tell Senior Joseff Goodwin, 22, dreams don’t come true at Claflin University. From the moment he left Santee, SC to pursue his studies in music, he found the support, guidance and dedication to help him develop his vocal talents and most importantly to encourage and direct him towards his goal of becoming a professional singer.

But not even Joseff believed that overnight he’d be heading to New York to audition for the Broadway hit and Tony award winning musical, “The Color Purple.”According to Joseff, it began with his mentor and Claflin’s Music Director Isaiah McGee.

“I found about the open call through Mr. McGee the night before the audition,” when Mr. McGee asked.

"Do you want to audition for the Color Purple, the musical?”

“And I said, yes”

And Mr. McGee said, “Do you have a resume, sixteen bars of a standard Broadway musical?"

"And I said, yes”

And Mr. McGee said, “Well the audition’s tomorrow. We leave at 5 in the morning.”

“And I was kind of shock. But I was glad I was prepared. I decided to sing 16 bars of the song, Bring Him Home from the musical Les Miserable.”

Joseff traveled to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where auditions for the musical were ongoing.

“And when I got there, there were about fifty people. I sang with piano accompaniment.

Surprisingly I was not nervous. I was jittery.  Well maybe I was a little nervous. I didn’t have the sweaty palms. None of that. While I was singing I was waiting to get some feedback. When I finished, one of the judges said, ‘Where have you been all my life?’I was like hmmm. This may be something good. She asked me after that if I knew another song.

‘Do you know anything kind of rock, pop, gospel or soul?’

I offered a Donny Hathaway song, A Song For You.

After I got finished, she said to me, ‘Have you ever been to a NY audition?’

And I said no.

‘Well how would you feel if we called you back for an audition in NY?’

And I said, cool.

She smiled and said, ‘Thank you very much.’

They took a Polaroid of me.

On Monday, while I was in the computer lab, I got the call back on my cell phone from one of the casting people in NY. The guy’s name is Jason.

He said, ‘We want to schedule an audition for the role of Harpo.’

(Harpo is one of the main characters. He becomes the step son of Celie, the musical’s star character)As soon as I got off the phone I leapt up and let out a screeching kinda sound, a silent scream and immediately called my Mother.

Mom said, ‘I’m happy for you.’

I said, Mom don’t tell anybody.”

And how does he feel the day before setting off for Broadway and The Big Apple?

“I’m kind of happy about it.”

After more one-on-one rehearsals and thoughtful and supportive advice from Mr. McGee, Joseff is preparing for the biggest, most important day of his life – the audition on Dec 11.

See and hear the face and voice that captivated the audition judges and gave Joseff’s his big break. His website at MySpace is listed below.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=74957223