You Like Me! You Really Like Me!
Okay, it must've taken me about five minutes to type this one very sentence you are reading right now. I'm just so excited that I can't type straight. I have recently accomplished one of my life goals, so that makes all of them except a threesome with Japanese twins. Err, anyway... the goal; I'm now performing in a real musical at Spring Mill Theater amongst professional actors, singers and dancers!
It was about three days ago that I saw a listing on an auditions web site for a single role that needed to be cast for The Langhorne Players' new musical "The Wild Party." Knowing what the musical was about (more on that later), I just had to have this. I e-mailed the director to express my interest asking about some information: If dancing experience was required, what should i bring to the audition, and what times would rehersals be. He e-mail response went as follows:
"Hi Scott,
I am glad that you are interested in the show. We are dancing, but past experience is not essential. All that matters is that you can sing in tune and carry a beat. You will not need to prepare any materials. I will teach you a short piece and have you do a 16 measure movement bit. Rehearsals have been on some week nights (Tues and Thurs at 7PM) and on the weekends (Sundays at Noon). I have a full schedule available should you be able to join us. I would like to audition you before a rehearsal. Are you available tomorrow evening at 6PM? or at the next rehearsal Sunday at 11AM? Let me know what works for you. Call me on my cell during the day tomorrow."
Now this was perfect because 1) I can't dance, 2) I don't have anything like a resume or headshot to bring and 3)those rehersal times are in sync with college. So, long story short, I did call and the director who was a cool guy and I decided to go to the audition the next day.
Now as much as I like acting/singing, auditions drive me to the brink of madness. I always pull it off in the end, it's just that before the audition I tend to not eat, get nervous, pace back and forth and study the show's material non-stop the whole day. But as usual, I survived long enough to make it to the audition.
I was one of two people there at that time, the other person was a pretty girl about 16 or 17 auditioning for another role. Her mom was there too, she seemed like the quintessence of a stereotypical stagemom. Every five seconds she had something else to say: "Oh my daughter sings jazz," "Oh well she's doing a shakespeare show right now so we'll have to revolve her schedule around that," or "Oh my daughter can dance." I think the director wanted to hear more from the actual girl than her mother. Anyway, the director gave us the backstory and then he played a small piece from the musical several times. I memorized it pretty fast and requested to go first. I pretty much nailed it and after the girl went (she also did well) we read a piece together where we were both grumpy new yorkers. Oh god if there's any accent I can do... it's the new yorker (Hey! Shut uppa ya mouth!). Okay, 2 down.. one to go. Then he says it, that thing that I hoped I would never hear: "Okay, now we're gonna do a small dance number." Ugh, singing and acting? No Problem. But dancing? Umm... yeah. I can mosh pretty well and I do a mean macarena, but that's about it. Yet, I knew I was stuck, so I continued. Turns out it wasn't that bad. There was this tricky spin part which i didn't really nail, but since we were on carpet and i was wearing shoes with rubber soles he said it didn't matter. As for the other moves, well I just watched the other girl for refrence.
That's it. We were done. The director finally said, "Okay... Cait, you've got the part," with me just standing there wondering when he was gonna talk to me, which he didn't for what seemed like an eternity because as soon as he said that the mom went on a yapping spree again about this and that. So she finally left and the director said to me that he wants me to read another piece. Wooh! I really thought I didn't get it for a second there. So we read a piece that had the character I was auditioning for in it, and it went over really well. The second we were done he said he wanted me for the part. I was ec-fucking-static and said "hells yeah!" Then I stayed for a rehersal for 3 and a half hours and met the cast. They're cool people... eccentric people, but hey what actors/singers aren't?
When all was over I went home and a bunch of white castle hamburgers to celebrate. Those things are really good!
Oh, one more thing! The show... it's called The Wild Party. Here's what it's about:
"The era is the Roaring Twenties and the tale is one of moral decadence, passion and jealousy, centered on two vaudeville performers. Frustrated by the strained relationship with her lover, Burrs, Queenie decides to throw a party to end all parties. Soon, their small apartment is filled with a wild assortment of characters and an explosive mix of music, dancing, sex and booze. Passions ignite, inhibitions subside and the celebrating goes on through the night. But such reckless celebration comes at a price.
Based on a book-length 1928 poem, The Wild Party is a jazzy new musical that explodes off the stage with passion, energy and the sounds of the Roaring 20's."
Now they make it sound all classy and such, but mark my words... this musical is about a big stinkin' orgy (Now you know why I wanted this so much haha). And my character? I'm one of the wild characters at the party named Oscar. Now Oscar has a brother named phil. We're both playwrites and musical composers. i play the piano, and he's the singer (but in the show, we both sing a lot). The funny part is even though we're straight brothers, we act gay and stuff all the time so nobody knows if we're brothers or lovers!
Oh my god... my parents are going to see this. Later bitches!
It was about three days ago that I saw a listing on an auditions web site for a single role that needed to be cast for The Langhorne Players' new musical "The Wild Party." Knowing what the musical was about (more on that later), I just had to have this. I e-mailed the director to express my interest asking about some information: If dancing experience was required, what should i bring to the audition, and what times would rehersals be. He e-mail response went as follows:
"Hi Scott,
I am glad that you are interested in the show. We are dancing, but past experience is not essential. All that matters is that you can sing in tune and carry a beat. You will not need to prepare any materials. I will teach you a short piece and have you do a 16 measure movement bit. Rehearsals have been on some week nights (Tues and Thurs at 7PM) and on the weekends (Sundays at Noon). I have a full schedule available should you be able to join us. I would like to audition you before a rehearsal. Are you available tomorrow evening at 6PM? or at the next rehearsal Sunday at 11AM? Let me know what works for you. Call me on my cell during the day tomorrow."
Now this was perfect because 1) I can't dance, 2) I don't have anything like a resume or headshot to bring and 3)those rehersal times are in sync with college. So, long story short, I did call and the director who was a cool guy and I decided to go to the audition the next day.
Now as much as I like acting/singing, auditions drive me to the brink of madness. I always pull it off in the end, it's just that before the audition I tend to not eat, get nervous, pace back and forth and study the show's material non-stop the whole day. But as usual, I survived long enough to make it to the audition.
I was one of two people there at that time, the other person was a pretty girl about 16 or 17 auditioning for another role. Her mom was there too, she seemed like the quintessence of a stereotypical stagemom. Every five seconds she had something else to say: "Oh my daughter sings jazz," "Oh well she's doing a shakespeare show right now so we'll have to revolve her schedule around that," or "Oh my daughter can dance." I think the director wanted to hear more from the actual girl than her mother. Anyway, the director gave us the backstory and then he played a small piece from the musical several times. I memorized it pretty fast and requested to go first. I pretty much nailed it and after the girl went (she also did well) we read a piece together where we were both grumpy new yorkers. Oh god if there's any accent I can do... it's the new yorker (Hey! Shut uppa ya mouth!). Okay, 2 down.. one to go. Then he says it, that thing that I hoped I would never hear: "Okay, now we're gonna do a small dance number." Ugh, singing and acting? No Problem. But dancing? Umm... yeah. I can mosh pretty well and I do a mean macarena, but that's about it. Yet, I knew I was stuck, so I continued. Turns out it wasn't that bad. There was this tricky spin part which i didn't really nail, but since we were on carpet and i was wearing shoes with rubber soles he said it didn't matter. As for the other moves, well I just watched the other girl for refrence.
That's it. We were done. The director finally said, "Okay... Cait, you've got the part," with me just standing there wondering when he was gonna talk to me, which he didn't for what seemed like an eternity because as soon as he said that the mom went on a yapping spree again about this and that. So she finally left and the director said to me that he wants me to read another piece. Wooh! I really thought I didn't get it for a second there. So we read a piece that had the character I was auditioning for in it, and it went over really well. The second we were done he said he wanted me for the part. I was ec-fucking-static and said "hells yeah!" Then I stayed for a rehersal for 3 and a half hours and met the cast. They're cool people... eccentric people, but hey what actors/singers aren't?
When all was over I went home and a bunch of white castle hamburgers to celebrate. Those things are really good!
Oh, one more thing! The show... it's called The Wild Party. Here's what it's about:
"The era is the Roaring Twenties and the tale is one of moral decadence, passion and jealousy, centered on two vaudeville performers. Frustrated by the strained relationship with her lover, Burrs, Queenie decides to throw a party to end all parties. Soon, their small apartment is filled with a wild assortment of characters and an explosive mix of music, dancing, sex and booze. Passions ignite, inhibitions subside and the celebrating goes on through the night. But such reckless celebration comes at a price.
Based on a book-length 1928 poem, The Wild Party is a jazzy new musical that explodes off the stage with passion, energy and the sounds of the Roaring 20's."
Now they make it sound all classy and such, but mark my words... this musical is about a big stinkin' orgy (Now you know why I wanted this so much haha). And my character? I'm one of the wild characters at the party named Oscar. Now Oscar has a brother named phil. We're both playwrites and musical composers. i play the piano, and he's the singer (but in the show, we both sing a lot). The funny part is even though we're straight brothers, we act gay and stuff all the time so nobody knows if we're brothers or lovers!
Oh my god... my parents are going to see this. Later bitches!