Well, it’s been a pretty hectic week. A lot of it is owed to the outcome of the audition I mentioned in my last post… which I suppose deserves some context.
I auditioned for Fiddler on the Roof in spite of feeling I wasn’t quite ready to be in a musical yet. There were a few mitigating factors that drove me to do it, though. First of all, they were booking auditions over a month in advance, so I was able to talk it over with my singing teacher and we had sufficient time to throw together an audition piece. Secondly, it’s right here in Kirkland, which means it wasn’t out of my way at all to audition and would mean a huge convenience for me if I was cast. Finally, it’s a show that needs a lot of men, and having suspicions that I’m the only lundsman in a 20-mile radius I figured I might fit the part well enough that they would be willing to bury me in the chorus with a dialogue-heavy role or something, even if I didn’t rock their world musically.
A week ago today they contacted me, asking me to attend callbacks to read as Tevye, the lead role. Naturally I was a bit freaked out by this. Now I don’t know Fiddler or its characters very well, but my singing teacher did and she informed me that according to the script, Tevye needs to be a good comic actor, and only a so-so singer (“Hey, I’m a so-so singer!”). So I started to get my hopes up, in spite of myself.
I won’t go into detail about the callbacks, but they were probably the most frustrating callbacks I’ve ever attended. I’m quite certain the director had made up her mind on who she wanted before I even got the opportunity to perform. Suffice to say I left there knowing I wouldn’t be Tevye, and sure enough I’ve been cast as the Rabbi’s son. Which is as much as I’d originally hoped for anyway, so that’s fine, although I’m still bitter about the carrot having been unnecessarily dangled in front of me. I’ll get over it, though, and in the meantime I get to cross “being in a musical” off of my list of things to do before I die.
Also, from the moment I auditioned I knew I wanted to get cast regardless of the part. The theatre we’re performing in is absolutely gorgeous. It’s a city-funded, state-of-the-art theatrical palace… easily the second-nicest space I’ve ever performed in (next to Meadowvale in Mississauga), and leagues ahead of what community theatre in these parts usually has to make do with. The producer in me was salivating at the thought.
Rehearsals don’t start for another week or so, but in the meantime the Seattle Improv Festival is in full-swing. I’ve got workshops all day tomorrow and Sunday, and about four hours of shows to attend tomorrow evening. I’m going to be a wreck… Monday’s a holiday here (something to do with the president, it seems), but of course we have a milestone due at work on Tuesday, so who knows if I’ll even be able to take the day off to recuperate.
Dan.