Tryouts

Susie Finkbeiner, a very famous author friend of mine (I was her assistant when she was the Children's Minister at our church back in the day), is taking a Director's class over at the Master Arts Theater in town (just ten minutes away from our house) and solicited the aid of her friends to volunteer as actors in some scenes that she and her fellow students are to direct. Mary and I both volunteered.

So on Monday night, we braved the snow and ice to drive ten minutes (actually almost eleven due to the inclement weather!) to the theater where we found ourselves in the middle of a frenzy of theatrical activity, with other potential actors and directors swirling around us in various states of dramatic ecstasy. The excitement, as they say, was palpable. And so were the nerves. Not mine, of course; I was just excited to be a part of it all, and get the chance to goof around on a stage. But the potential directors were a bit on edge, nervous, shaky, sweaty, trying to keep it all together while evaluating the performance of the people (friends and family, mostly) who had shown up to support them.

We saw some old church friends, which made for a happy reunion. We met the student directors, whose minds were aflutter. And we met our fellow volunteer/actors, who were in various states of readiness and nervousness.

We went downstairs first to the room where Susie would be auditioning her potential candidates; she's doing scenes from "Sense and Sensibility". Mary tried out for the part of Marianne. I was sent back upstairs to audition for a role in Agathe Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution". Apparently they weren't looking for any old men in S&S; they need young, handsome men for John Dashwood, Edward Ferrars, and Robert Ferrars. So I took a walk back upstairs and into the tiny office where auditions for WftP were taking place.

The director-to-be was busy with something so he handed me a script to look over, and then another not-quite-so-young gentlemen came in to read as well, and soon we were going through the script together. The chosen scene only involved the Prosecutor and the Accused, so I took the part of the Prosecutor and he the Accused, and, when the director returned from his errand, he gave us a synopsis of the play to that point, and then we ran through it. I had a wonderful time! And all too soon, we were done and it was time for the next duo to read.

I went back downstairs to see how Mary was doing.

She was having a wonderful time playing as Marianne in a scene from S&S which I thoroughly enjoyed watching. And then it was time for another scene for which I volunteered as the part of Thomas, the servant (only 4 lines), which I overplayed a bit (I couldn't help adding a bit of an accent!); and then it was time for a few more scenes, and then we switched to another play, and then another. In all, Mary was able to read for two or three scenes, and I did three (including the part of a dwarf in a 'modern' adaptation of Snow White), and then we were done.

We were all thanked profusely, and told that we would receive phone calls later that night to give us our assigned roles. As there were a number of scenes and not quite so many actors, we were all guaranteed parts. So we drove home (happy and weary) and waited.

Mary got the part of Marianne. Yay!

And I got the part of The Prosecutor. Yay!

So for the next few weeks, we will be having rehearsals on Monday nights down at the Theater, and then we will be doing final performances on March 21st and 22nd.

So it's time to memorize lines!!