Callback Week!

Wow! Last week was crazy...and it's not over yet! Monday (my birthday) were general auditions for the "Spring" season, (although they included Little Women, which goes up in December, so it's not really spring...) which meant that we performed a one minute monologue and a 30 second song for the 4 directors who will be casting the shows. The four shows are Little Women, Elephant Man, You Can't Take it With You, and Godspell. It's a little ironic that I performed in You Can't Take it With You and Godspell my sophomore year in high school 25 years ago!!! It REALLY doesn't feel like it was that long ago. Anyway, the audition went okay, although I still get so nervous when I have to sing at an audition, and I felt the song was a little weak. Definitely not as good as it sounded in my house.

But, it must have gone all right because I ended up getting called back for all four shows! For those who aren't familiar with callbacks, that means you and whoever else was called back read from several selections of the script, specifically for the role you're being considered for. Elephant Man callbacks were Tuesday night. Now, I have to confess, I'm not 100% familiar with the Elephant Man script. I read the first half of one about a year ago, and I was so bored with it I couldn't finish it. However, that must have been a different version, because I finally read most of the Pomerance version that we're doing, and it was much better. Anyway, I was called back for the role of Mrs. Kendal, and for Nurse Sandwich. Mrs. Kendal is a pretty major part...originally it was going to be someone's thesis role, but they ended up getting pregnant and can't do it. Also, the character is supposed to get naked onstage. HOWEVER, they won't be staging it here with nudity (it is Regent, after all) but only with the suggestion of nudity. I think that callback went really well.
Callbacks for You Can't Take it With You were Wednesday night. For that, I was called back for Penelope - the mother character. In high school I played Essie, the wannabe ballerina, but for some reason I'm not being considered for that character anymore!! Those were fun, but I had a splitting headache all throughout them and I was a bit distracted.
Acting callbacks for Godspell were Thursday night. We did lots of improv and storytelling games...the only named characters in Godspell are Jesus and Judas/John the Baptist, and I'm not up for one of those, so it would be ensemble...but the ensemble does EVERYTHING...and I think it would be really fun to do that show, and really challenging. Speaking of challenging, we were then taught a dance combo for the song/dance callbacks on Saturday...and I thought I was going to die. It is VERY fast, VERY high energy, and totally impossible to sing at the same time, but we have to try!
Saturday afternoon were singing and dance callbacks for Godspell. We sang parts for Save the People and All Good Gifts (I'm on alto, surprise, surprise!) and then I sang Turn Back alone. The singing went well - much better than the general audition - but I think another girl killed it on Turn Back, so she'll probably get the solo. Dance auditions went as well as could be expected. I held my own, and against kids half my age. So there.
Little Women callbacks are tonight. I'm reading for Marmee and Aunt March. (Sensing a pattern here...)

So, I'm kind of hoping for Elephant Man and Godspell. Little Women would be fun, but since it's a "studio" show, that means it rehearses from 5 -7 (as opposed to the Mainstage shows which rehearse 7 - 11) and I could have to be rehearsing for two shows at the same time. I'm already in As You Like It, which starts rehearsals tonight (after Little Women callbacks) and runs until the week after Thanksgiving. So if I do Little Women and Elephant Man, I'll be rehearsing pretty much nonstop until the end of January. And this is on top of regular classwork, which has kept me quite busy up until now.

I should find out what's going to happen within the next couple of days. Eek!