Thursday, February 3, 2011

EEE GADS!


So, about a week ago I bit the bullet and walked headfirst into a musical theater audition. This involves the slightly nervewracking experience of singing alone in front of people. As most of you know, I have trained in dance for years and years, and have been involved in many theater productions over the years as well. I have been taking voice lessons since last March but singing alone still makes me nervous.
There's no way on God's green earth I would do this unless motivated by a very attractive end goal. And this end goal was to actually BE in this musical. Performing in musical theater productions happens to be one of my top three favorite things to do in this entire world, ever.
So, I got through it (no doubt with the encouragement and prayers from many beloved friends). After my audition I was asked to come to dance callbacks! Yay! Now THAT is something I can do. I will dance for you all day long if you want me to!
Sunday night I arrived at callbacks just in time. We learned some choreography and performed the combinations in groups of four. I saw a few people there that I had worked with before, specifically in "Oklahoma!" with PNTC last year (the experience that once again introduced musical theater into my system as my own personal form of artistic, emotional and social crack). This helped me relax a bit (seeing familiar people, not crack) and actually forget about my nervousness and have fun in the audition. After dancing I was asked to read lines for the character Zaneeta Shinn. She is the dance lead in Music Man, and giggly teenage daughter of the Mayor of River City. For those of you who aren't familiar with her character, the line she is most known for saying is "Eee Gads!"
As it turns out, my happy meter is now about to explode, because I got the call that I am cast as Zaneeta! I am so excited about this role, because I will be dancing quite a bit, AND I have lines as well. I am so excited to develop this giggly teenage character and to see how much fun I can possibly fit into three months of rehearsing and performing again.
The show opens April 29th and runs for three weekends (until May 15th). I put the link to the Performance Now Theatre Company's website below if you want more info.
http://www.performancenow.org/