It's Official

It's official, I did not get a part in A Winter's Tale with the Prenzie Players.

I have been attending Prenzie's (mostly) Shakespearean plays for the past three and a half years, ever since my wife convinced me to go see A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was phenomenal. They showed me that not only did Shakespeare not suck, but that his plays could be extremely fascinating. In all of the shows that we have seen, the actors have been excellent, and the directing is always at least a little edgy. The performances are very memorable. At home, several of the actors occasionally even come up in our casual conversations, and we have wanted to see performances by other groups simply due to a Prenzie actor being part of the cast.

With my background in drama, a mere 14 years ago in high school, I occasionally thought about auditioning for a part. Fear and a complete lack of any Shakespearean experience kept me from ever trying it ... until this past week. Last season's performances of Much Ado About Nothing, the most comedic performance that I have ever seen, and Trojan Women, the most tragic performance that I have ever seen, were so amazing that I couldn't help but want to be a part of it.

So, I spent the summer reading up on Shakespeare and watching videos such as "John Barton's Playing Shakespeare". I am now amazed at the intricacies and depth of his work. And also amazed at how it was made so bland during high school.

Maybe I would have hated it no matter what at that age.

In addition to learning about Shakespearean acting for a decent chunk of the summer, I also told quite a few people that I was planning on auditioning. I knew that I would be really nervous and want to back out, and doing so took that option off of the table.

The auditions were this past weekend. At the beginning, I was rather intimidated, as almost everyone else there had acted in multiple Prenzie plays. Even the few non-Prenzies had quite a bit of experience performing in various other plays in this area. As someone without even any community theatre experience, I felt a little like someone who decided to skip high school and college ball and go straight to the pros.

Then the auditions began, and they were a blast. I would be assigned a part in a scene with one to three other people, and then we would rehearse it for about five to ten minutes, and head out to perform it. Then I would be assigned another scene with someone else, and perform that one, and so on. And even though I didn't really have a clue what I was doing (and sometimes what I was saying), the other actors were great, and I felt comfortable there. And when acting Shakespeare for the first time, that is probably the best thing that anyone could ask for.

Excitement (and no small amount of stress) raced through me when I opened the e-mail for Monday's call backs. And seeing my name in big texty letters was even more of a rush. That night when I arrived at the theatre, I even felt comfortable enough to try out a few ideas that I came up with on the spot. Regardless of whether they worked (not so much), the fact that I (a devoted introvert) was willing to try 'bold' things with a group of people I didn't really know, says a lot about the environment of the audition.

Unfortunately, as I said above, my auditions ended there. I was not asked to be part of the cast for A Winter's Tale. JC, the director, did send me an e-mail saying I had improved IMMENSELY (emphasis his) from earlier that week, and that he hopes that I come to future auditions. I know that those words could be seen as a courtesy, but I truly believe that he is pulling for me to do well.

Now I think back on things that I did poorly and I wish that I had done better, and I am sure that I will continue to do so for quite a while. I also know that I have a lot of work to do before I am ready to audition for Troilus and Cressida in December. But, I realized one thing just before I went to sleep last night (and I roused my mostly asleep wife to tell her) ...

Even though it didn't turn out exactly how I hoped, I was actually at the theatre performing scenes with these amazing actors. Disguising myself. Duping rubes. Finding a baby in a basket. Agreeing to poison a king.

I was there, and that is really fucking sweet.

Food:
Breakfast:
Meatloaf with Mustard

Snack:
Almonds

Lunch:
Meatloaf with Mustard

Snack:
Doritos
Dark Chocolate

Dinner:
Tots with Yogurt and BWW Sauce
Popcorn

Exercise:
I walked at a slow to decent pace for about 35 minutes.