Alex Geringer, senior musical theatre major and marketing minor, and Lacey Henderson, a graduate student earning her multiple subject teaching credential here in Chico said despite waiting in the holding room with divas and crazy stage moms, auditioning for “The Voice” was quite an experience.

The Orion sat down with the duo for a Q&A; about why they chose to audition together and their singing experience.

The Orion:
What made the two of you decide to audition as a duet?

Geringer: Our voices complement each other really well, and we thought it’d be fun to work with each other.

The Orion:
Why did you choose “Poker Face” as your audition song?

Henderson:
We wanted to do a musical theatre song, “Take Me or Leave Me” from “Rent,” and rehearsed it till midnight the night before submissions were due only to change our minds at the last minute. We thought “Poker Face” would be a better fit for “The Voice.”

The Orion:
What were the other songs you had lined up to sing for the producers in Los Angeles? Were you given the opportunity to sing them?

Geringer:
We also planned on singing “Counting Stars” by One Republic and decided, once again at the last minute, that haters are gonna hate, so we went with our original choice of “Take Me or Leave Me.” But obviously that song was never meant to be because they heard everything they needed to hear after “Poker Face.”

The Orion:
What did the producers say to you two?

Henderson:
They told us that our voices were really great but we weren’t really what they were looking for. They told us we would be better suited at a Broadway audition – and that’s a damn good thing because we’ve spent four years studying musical theatre.

The Orion:
Why did you two decide to audition?

Geringer:
Lacey was the one that told me about the audition, then we just spontaneously decided to do it at 12 a.m. the night before it was due.

Henderson:
I honestly kept getting e-mails from SOTA so I decided to just do it. It’s our senior year, why not?

The Orion:
Had you two ever sang together before the audition? If so, where and how often?

Henderson:
We’ve been in shows together before, the most recent being “Spring Awakening.” People have always told us we sound good so we figured what the hell.

The Orion:
Had you ever seen “The Voice” prior to auditioning?

Henderson:
No, but the first time we watched it was on YouTube after we found out we made it. We didn’t know what to expect but after watching it we got excited that we were chosen to compete.

Geringer:
We were sizing up the competition. That’s when we found out we needed a group name.

Henderson:
My aunt suggested Chico Chicas.

Geringer:
We spent way too many brain cells on deciding our name, which ended up being DUCHESS. Chosen five seconds before we auditioned. Go us.

Nicole Santos can be reached at [email protected] or @Iam_NicoleS on Twitter.