Theatre junkie weekend

It was another crazy theatre junkie weekend. At 8 am Saturday, we were headed out the door to make it to my Noises Off audition, which went well, I think. I was only auditioning for Poppy because of my numerous conflicts, so that's the only part I read. A 45-minute drive for a 2-minute audition. However, worth it either way. If cast, yay. If not, I can't regret not giving it a shot.

Then it was on to White Christmas rehearsal, to which we were not called until 10:30. I guess I'm known to be good with accents, because the actress playing Martha (Judy played Golde when I was Yente nearly two years ago--I helped her with her Yiddish accent then) consulted with me about what sort of voice Martha would have. I pointed her toward http://www.dialectsarchive.com/, where she could listen to New England 'natives' speaking. I related how I use my long drive to and from work or theatre to find a character's voice, to experiment with dialect and cadence. I look at the character's word choice, research unfamiliar expressions and colloquialisms used. Judy and I share the approach that finding the character's voice is an essential first step to determining who s/he is, why she says what s/he says, and how s/he reacts to various situations and other characters.

After White Christmas rehearsal, it was a quick trip home, then back to perform two shows of Clue: The Musical. I love when actors finally settle in to a show, grab it by the cojones and own it. Pace, energy, intensity all take flight, and the show is suddenly a thousand times better than it was even the day before. That was yesterday. Thursday and Friday evening shows were good, but Saturday's shows were spectacular. This is probably why some theatres do more than one preview. Or a preview, a $5 night, maybe a Pay-what-you-can night. Putting a show in front of an audience adds a whole new dynamic, of course, and some shows require a higher level of comfort and familiarity with how the audience overall will respond before it can fully ripen. Alas, such is Clue. Next weekend will be a bit of a challenge, though: we have another actor stepping in for our Professor Plum. Who has not seen a whit of the show since tech week. Fingers crossed.

Today we saw another theatre's production of Clue, which was very good. They had a solid alto among the suspects, and an upright bass in addition to piano and percussion, so musically they sounded better in some numbers. But overall, I like ours better, of course.

During that show, I felt my phone vibrate. Afterwards, after we'd chatted with the cast, I remembered that I probably had a message. It was the stage manager for Noises Off letting me know that my conflict were just too great, which I suspected would/should be the case. It was actually a bigger relief than I thought it would be. While I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to do Noises Off, the stress of doing it NOW would be significant.

So I shall be auditioning for Cash on Delivery (which I am already slated to costume) on November 4th. That director is a principal in White Christmas, so his conflicts are the same as mine.

Love this chaotic life!