So, I made the cut. After the most stressful audition of my life - whether because I've been away for so long, or this company is just way more professional than any I've dealt with before - I was offered the role of a wife in Scarborough Music Theatre's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Yay!
I cannot express how happy I am that all my nerves and stress and (literal) sweat resulted in a part in this musical. Call backs were filled with so many talented people it was crazy. And now, after 12 years away from a stage, I am lucky enough to be involved once again in something I love - the production of something from the ground up. Telling a story through song, dance, & I'm sure many gallons of water and coffee to fuel me. New faces, new voices, & new discoveries.
It was scary putting myself out there after so long, but I am now excited and motivated - my goal is to get into better shape before September rehearsals. If this audition process has taught me anything, it's that I am in horrible shape. I am in so much pain right now my forearms are aching as I type. And that's just not right.
It's been 12 years since I have auditioned for anything. Yup, I still hate it. But what is a theatre fan to do? I miss being involved in a show. The energy, the music, even the dancing, I'll admit, is a lot of fun. I love theatre people, & I've been away from them for far too long.
I'm not wanting a lead role - 12 years out of practice, remember? But the fact that I know I'm capable of it makes it harder to just relax about an audition, any audition. But you have to go for it.
I started panicking about a week before, trying to make sure everything would be perfect.
Anyone who's ever auditioned for anything knows that the more you panic, the worse you do. Nerves, awkward gestures, darting eyes...that was me, yesterday.
Yet I still feel like I did well, especially for my first audition in so long, in front of a room full of people I didn't know. I am not the confident, cocky, & oblivious-that-anyone-might-be-more-talented-than-me 20 year old anymore. I came home with a migraine, & puked for the rest of the day.
Now I have to figure out how to get rid of those nerves before the callback next week.
I first discovered Toad the Wet Sprocket when I saw them on Letterman in 1996, playing Something's Always Wrong off their album, Dulcinea. I was immediately smitten with their music, even if none of my friends knew who they were.
They broke up before I ever got to see them live, making them one of a handful of bands I would forever carry that longing for.
After they broke up, the lead singer, Glen Phillips, went solo, & I bought & loved every album, but my favourite was 2005's Winter Pays For Summer. I fell in love with the first track, Duck & Cover, which contains these lyrics:
"Seems like life is a palindrome.
Cry when you die, cry when you're born.
In between, it's all about the ups and downs.
Add them all together, they cancel each other out.
...
'Cause one way or another, the winter pays for the summer."
I've always believed that you have to know the bad to know the good, but this put it so much more eloquently than I could ever hope to. This is life, in a nutshell.
2 months ago, I was delighted to discover that Toad The Wet Sprocket would be playing in Orlando, the week we would be there. When I say delighted, I mean I had tears in my eyes. They had been playing shows on & off for the last few years, but never near Toronto, so this was the first one I had a chance to attend. I was ecstatic, & it was one of the best concert experiences of my life. Glen Phillips was barefoot (this made me oddly giddy), & they began with Something's Always Wrong, the first Toad song I ever heard. Magic.
I don't know if I've ever been in an audience of so many HAPPY people. Later, they played another Toad favourite of mine, Crazy Life.
I contacted Glen several weeks ago, before I named my blog...it seemed wrong not to. He replied graciously, thanked me for asking, said it would be fine, and wished me luck.
After years of thinking about blogging, I'm just going to go ahead and do it. I grew up keeping a diary, and I stopped when I finished high school. How strange is that? I kept track of everything (& one) I loved and hated through my adolescent & teenage years, & when things finally get interesting, I don't document it.
Having said that, this is by no means a diary. I'm thinking of it as a family-based pop-culture-obssessed thirst-for-knowledge site. I intend to use this site as an extension of my facebook and twitter accounts - sometimes 140 characters can't cut it, & I don't want to be annoying fb friends with rambling notes & statuses if they don't care.
Which brings us here. If you know me, or if you just stumbled upon this, I hope each post will be either informative or entertaining. At the very least, not a complete waste of your time.
My next post will be about how I chose the name for my blog, & which musician gave me his blessing to use it.
