My First Show; Auditions to Selection
My experience with theatre has always been limited to support functions. Working set building, stage crew during performances, etc. For some reason I’ve always enjoyed being behind the scenes, the rationale being that my ability to memorize anything was less than sub par so what was the point of even trying? Yup, the darkened corners of backstage was where I felt most at home. until we moved here I hadn’t touched theatre since high school.
When we first relocated to Dover DE. Christina got involved in a local theatre guild, when I eventually got involved with it as well; I limited my interactions with the guild to behind the scenes functions, usually assisting with set construction or manning the bar during performances. Easy stuff, and it satisfied my innate desire to be helpful. What is this acting thing you speak of?
A regular part of the guild is their monthly “Whoopee”, where members and guests alike bring plays in they’ve written themselves and act out 10 minute scripts completely blind. At the end of the night, people vote on who had the best play and the winner gets a little trophy, they’re always a blast. Bet you can guess what I did during whoopee… if you guessed buy a drink and enjoy the show, you’d be correct!
Then one whoopee, a script was submitted that called for more people than there were in the room, or specifically it called for the exact amount of people in the room… me being one of them. And despite the pressure from just about everyone in the room, I still adamantly refused to act for one of the parts, this forced the writer of the play to take one of the parts in his own play that I would have otherwise done, I never heard the end of that. Later that night it got me thinking, and for the next few weeks I mulled over what it would be like to audition for a part. Never mind even getting a part, but just overcoming the hesitation I’ve always had about acting. I couldn’t use the excuse that I didn’t like public speaking, after 3+ years of teaching resilience principles to groups of 15 people or higher, that would just be disingenuous. That meant my hesitation was because I’ve always had an astounding amount of difficulty memorizing things.
So, after their latest performances wrapped, and they announced Laughter on the 23rd Floor as their next show, I started considering it even more. My line of reasoning followed the following bullet points:
The cast was sizeable, at 8 cast members, 6 of which were male roles, that meant I had some chance. A little glimmer of hope, even if I wasn’t confident I wanted it.
This was a relatively popular play and people were excited to audition, there’d be more than enough people that would show up; so even if I went out for it, against veteran actors my chances were even slimmer.
With the first two bullet points in mind, this seemed like a great way to dip my toe in without actually having a chance at needing to commit. A taste if you will.
Having found this line of reasoning suitable, I decided to go for it. At best I figured, I’d be thanked for trying out, and maybe by the next show I’d have the confidence to actually, truly give it my best shot. Either way, I’d learn something by watching those around me who had spent time doing it already, so this would be a win right?
Auditions were held over the course of two nights, around two hours each night. The director had us cold read for separate parts, kind of like trying on a costume and seeing who wore it best.
“Nate, beginning of page 1, that first monologue as Lucas” she called from the seats. Meanwhile the other actors are standing around me and all I can think is “what? by myself??” I start, beneath the words I heard coming from my mouth, that little voice in back of my head is spouting off.
Why am I the only one speaking? Am I really stuttering right now, are you serious? Oh… that’s humorous… “If I seem nervous to you” is a line in this monologue.
And so it went, she had me read parts for such characters as Brian (A smoker with a chronic cough), Kenny (Described as a “boy genius”) once as Ira (A hypochondriac) and as Lucas (For all intents and purposes, he (lucas) was the narrator)
As the auditions wound on, I noticed she kept directing me back to Lucas’ lines. A growing uneasiness of excitement and dread decided about that time that the pit of my stomach was a good place to take up residence. The first night of auditions finished, the director thanked us for coming out and then asked that if we could make it for the next days auditions that would be great but if we didn’t, it wouldn’t impact the selection process. The stomach monster growled reminded me that we had to see this through to the end, because momma didn’t raise no bitch.
Audition Day two, the director had me reading almost exclusively for Lucas’. A sinking feeling had now nestled it’s way into my brain, purring confidently; it made sure to mention that my plans… as best laid as they were, seemed to be going awry. As we wrapped up, the director and assistant director thanked us all again, told us they were going to sit down and go over there notes, and they’d be in touch with us soon.
Oh boy.
With auditions over, I forcefully evicted the sinking feeling from my brain, as well as its cousin, the excited uneasiness from my stomach and asked Christina the dreaded question of the day “what do you want for dinner?” We decided on Arbys. I still held onto hope that my plans were rock solid, there was no way I’d be given a part.
Halfway to the restaurant… the phone rings. It’s 9:30 pm. Nobody ever calls me that late, it’s important to note here that I didn’t have the directors number saved in my phone so it showed up as an unrecognized number but it had the green checkmark next to the number signifying the phone call was coming from an android device… all I could rationalize was oh shit.
It was the director.
“Uh hello?”
I’m sure it’s just a wrong number
“Hey Nate, how’s it going?”
Oh please no…
“Oh good, just going to grab some dinner.”
I got it! You’re just calling to tell me thanks for trying out, that’s so nice of you
”That’s great, well we’re just sitting here at the bar, talking about parts for the play”
Not sure why I needed to know that since you’re going to tell me I didn’t get a part but… go on I guess
”That’s awesome, which bar? and where was my invite?!”
”Oh here at the guild"
This can’t be happening…
”Oh nice! if I’d known ya’ll were grabbing drinks I would’ve joined you <insert nervous laugh>
”Anyway, the assistant director and I have been talking…”
Just hang up the phone… shit…. fake a dropped call… you don’t want this…
”We were wondering if you’d be interested in taking the part for Lucas?”
*Breaking Glass*
“You’re shitting me!?”
” I shit you not…”
This is your chance you dolt, kindly refuse and congratulate yourself that you made it this far!
“Well, I mean yeah sure I’d love to do it, I’ll take it”
You’re a moron.
“Really? That’s great, we’re gonna finish looking over these other parts then we’ll get back to you with a rehearsal schedule!”
“Sounds great!”
As I hung up the phone, I couldn’t help but wonder what on earth possessed me to accept a part who’s lines were all monologue. I routinely lose everything from the remote to my wallet on a near constant basis, how the hell was I going to pull this off?
Part II coming soon (Hopefully)
