My Theatre in the Park Experience: Update

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OK, so one of my 50^th Year (2013) goals is to be in a community theatre production somewhere.  Theatre in the Park is the largest and most elaborate of the community theatres in my area.  As I have documented, on a whim, I auditioned last year and I bombed.  This year, my goal was to audition and represent myself vocally. My goal for next year is to be in better shape, move better, and be in a show at TITP or somewhere else.

Christian and I went to the auditions for TITP last Saturday. It was a fun experience and I kind of thought my involvement would be mostly over.  I thought the directing team for Sweeney may call me back for the ensemble or not call me back at all and just put me in the chorus (which was what I was expecting.)

For the uninitiated, here is a description of a “Callback”

A callback is when the artistic team of a show wants a further look at an actor in a particular role or roles.  It is usually a multi-hour process with the actors reading for and singing various parts. It also allows the directors to see different configurations of groups and potential lead actors interacting.  It also shows how well an actor takes direction and adjusts their performance.

The call-back list for TTIP was posted on Wednesday.

I did get called back for the Sweeney Todd, “Ensemble.”

It’s just that I was also called-back for the characters of :

“Sweeney”,

“Judge Turpin”

“Pirelli” (all in Sweeney Todd)

“Callahan” in Legally Blonde

“Cladwell” in Urinetown.

I was flattered, but at a loss.  Then I started “crunching the numbers” (which is what I do in times of stress.)

On the TITP website each character has posted the “sides” or sections of music the directors are going to want to hear.  Here are what mine look like:

> Judge Turpin/Sweeney duet: 2 sections

> Sweeney: 2 solo sections

> Pirelli: 2 sections

> Sweeney Ensemble: 2 sections

> Callahan: 1 section

> Cladwell: 2 sections, dialogue and a monologue

> Urinetown Ensemble: 3 sections

That’s 14 sections of music and 2 pieces of script.

I have seen Urinetown once but I have never seen Legally Blonde, (thank Goodness for YouTube.)  The Sweeney stuff I’ve sung along to for years, but I have never “sung in the shower” to the Pirelli and Turpin stuff. The Callahan piece is easy, but the Cladwell pieces are odd.

As I worked on the callback material last night I thought to myself, “Wow, preparing to sing a one-minute portion of a song you know really, really well is a lot easier than singing 14 different sections of songs you don’t know very well at all.”

Also…these directors tend to work for Theatre in the Park regularly.  I made a good first impression, but it will be harder to make my 2^nd impression on Saturday.

chris