Aaargh

What a harrowing day. Auditions. They're always hard. And way out of my comfort zone. Way out of everyone's comfort zone, as a matter a fact. But a lot of these people came from theater background --- so most of the "acting exercises" they've done in class. We walked across the room 20 times as different characters, animals, disiblities (I was blind, not much of a stretch), and moods. We did impromptu scenes. We did name-in-a-circle games.

Finally we were done with the games and onto cold readings. That wasn't too bad, except some of the people reading had already done this show several times, so they were great. Character, blocking, accents, inflection. While the rest of us are trying to writhe around on a cot, half unconscious, pretending to be badly injured, and reading the script. I felt I did very poorly.

For the capper, they decided I have the most experience for the dance/movement role. In 100 degree heat I had to dance around pretending to be a large, evil bird. I did two or three scenes like that, and then to give me a break, I got to do interpretive blocking as the spider in "itsy-bitsy spider." I'm tired and sweaty.

They'll post the final cast list tomorrow. They've already cast the leads for the most part, but the rest of the 15 or so parts have to be divided among the five ensemble members. I think I'm going to play the blasted bird. It's a really great part, but a different one for me. No singing, no lines. Just movement. AAAARRRGH. And tonight we have, promptly at 8, spontaneity planned in our schedule.

My best audition was as a cat trapped on an airplane.