I have an audition tomorrow night.  Have had it on the books for a MONTH, and I’m only half-way prepared.  Why?  Well, it’s a musical.  Okay, it’s The Wizard of Oz, in Berkeley.  Of all the other kinds of athlete I’m not, I think the one I’m LEAST like is a vocal athlete.  I enjoy singing & karaoke, but it’s never something I do in front of strangers.  So I’m DREADING it; I may have effectively sabotaged it already by not securing sheet music (or even listening to the song again) for the pianist yet.  Alright, so it’s a song I’ve always loved, and could sing it in my sleep if I had to – but the idea of going into a room with new people, handing music to an accompanist, and standing on a stage, waiting for my cue… even my fingernails are sweating.

For what it’s worth, though, I’ve resolved NOT to chicken out.  Even if I completely screw that part up, they told me there are plenty of roles without solo requirements.  Plus, it’s frikkin’ audition experience, right?  This is #3 overall, and #2 for actual staged productions.  (First one was for a web commercial that had no lines.)

So I’m off to Dolores Park to practice for our final scenes on Tuesday.  I’m Baron Toozenbach in Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’, and we’re doing the scene from Act 4 where I say goodbye to Irina & head off to my duel with Solyony. 

Definitely NOT a role I would have chosen to play on my strengths, which is good – I asked for something that would stretch me.  However, this scene is all of … 12 lines total for the Baron, and less than that for Irina.  And if rushed, if done the way Olivier directed it in 1970’s film version, it’s over in less than 60 seconds.

There’s all of this complexity & subtext that we’re supposed to bring into it, which I’m game for… but the scene, the whole damn play, is a drag.  Granted, I’m new to ‘classical’ drama, so I don’t know a shrew from a seagull, but this play starts in a bad place and only seems to go to darker, worse places.  Upon further study I’m sure I could find a valuable meaning – I assume it has one given its incredibly long period of survival & revival – that would help push me into new directions with what I think of as Theater.  But right now I can’t explain why anyone would put on this production because I don’t know why anyone would pay to see it.  Such are the lessons I need to learn… best way to learn is to hang out with other actors & artists who love to do this stuff.

Off to accomplish that bit.  Will update you on the audition later this week; clap hands!  (I’ve decided to say ‘clap hands’ in places where you’d expect to see ‘cross your fingers’.  Look for that to come up in future pop culture references; after all, I started the whole ‘Balls!’ craze about two years ago.  I tried ‘Sack!’ first, but found its sibilance controversial/discriminatory to people with lisps, much like the word LISPS.)

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