So with school now taking up most of my performance time I saw less and less time at the community theatre. There was also a rumor that we weren’t allowed to take shows outside school. (Which wasn’t totally untrue) But summers were the one time where we still had freedom to continue to hang out together and do the big community theatre SUMMER MUSICAL (or play). Or in this case, the summer of 2005, The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood. I had never heard of this show prior to performing it, and I haven’t heard of it since, but it’s silly, goofy, and I really enjoyed it. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot, but with the right group of people, you laugh a lot. I remember the auditions for one specific reason, I made choices. I remember watching the girls ahead of me make the same exact choices for the role of Maid Marian. I remember thinking, “That’s so different from how I see her” So when it was time for me to go, I did what I thought was right. I try to hold on to that version of myself. The version that looked around and saw everyone doing the same exact thing, but decided to make my own choices because I thought they were more correct. And they were loud, proud, bold choices, but you know what? I got the part. I try to take that version of myself to all auditions. The version that will fling things out and try rather than shyly taking the back seat and becoming a step and repeat. It doesn’t always work, but when it does, I know it’s because I tried.
Inspirational speech aside, I had a blast with this show. I think for the first time I was playing a lead role. I was the girl that got the guy. For me that was huge. Growing up I had never been popular (see: why I joined theatre) and even in theatre, I was never the front runner of my age group. But finally I got a chance to be up-front and center and I loved it. Speaking of being the girl that got the guy, this show brought me my first stage kiss. Holy cow are first stage kisses awkward. But at least my Robin Hood was
And how does a director prep two teenagers for their first stage kiss. Pull them aside during a rehearsal into a classroom, turn of the lights, and made them kiss while the rest of the cast stood outside being snarky. At the time we were terrified, but looking back on the moment it all seems so silly. I also have to mention that while I was kissing someone in the show, I was also kissing someone outside of the show. Yes that’s right, I started dating someone in the cast that summer. And we would date for what felt like the rest of high school but in reality was only like 6 months. HI ARRON! This show and this cast really ignited the next chapter of my high school career and I am so thankful for the experience.
0 Comments
So you may have noticed in my last story time that I said I was going to let the first TWO shows of my freshmen year pass me by. And for some of you, that seems strange. Unlike most high schools in my area that did one show at best, we did four to five a year. That’s right, FOUR to FIVE. My freshmen year we did Grease, Jekyll & Hyde, Noises Off, Always Patsy Cline, and Beauty & the Beast. I understand that for some theatre companies, that would be their whole season. It seemed like we were always putting on a show and I guess it’s because we were. So my freshmen year not only did I get to do the huge musical Jekyll & Hyde, I performed in Beauty & the Beast. Now as a freshmen I knew I would not get Belle (I mean, I still hoped I would). And while I did receive high praise for my audition, (you naturally have such great diction) I was cast as…(let me check my records)…*ahem* (thanks resume by dad)… LADY w/ CANE and SPOON. I cannot believe a resume exists that says I played Lady with Cane.
Beauty and the beast was fun. I remember it was my first time having to put on eyeliner by myself and when I find the picture, you’ll see just how well I did. (One word: RACCOON). Also look at that picture, that might be the best ensemble costume I’ve ever worn. Oh and I remember having a choreographer in this show who kicked my behind, well all of our behinds. She told us that if we didn’t feel like vomiting after each number we weren’t giving it our “all” And I’m pretty sure after that show we never saw her again. Another (Science Fiction) Double Feature. The Nutcracker I wasn’t featured very much, which makes sense because I’m not a dancer. I played one of the maids that get frightened by the mouse. How you may ask did I end up in the Nutcracker as a non-dancer? Well my friends, I’m pretty sure they needed my dad to play one of the dancing men at the party. Classic case of there are never enough men in theatre.
I remember I convinced my mom to let me skip school for one performance because it was imperative that I throw snow during the second act, but all together my time At The Ballet was short and uneventful. I felt like I knew what I was doing and that I was doing it well, but who knows since I’m almost positive there is no recorded evidence. The opposite is true about my performance in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Let me start off by saying, I loved the book, but I’m not quite sure it needed to be turned into a stage adaptation. It’s awkward and drags in places. It didn’t help that we were a bunch of kids with no one to really ground the show. And our production did the source material very few favors. Bless us, we were trying. I remember really wanted to play Susan, she was always my favorite. At the auditions they paired us off to see who looked the most like a family and that took a good long while, for the part of Susan there must have been like 20 girls. I didn’t get the part, but I didn’t end up rocking an amazing hair style as the Unicorn. Now things I remember about being the unicorn include: See-through, skin-tight white pants and my silver/white mohawk complete with unicorn horn. That’s right I had a mohawk. My hair was first curled and then shoved to the center of my head to create this mane-esque look. It was beautiful in a very weird way. I had a lot of narration to do as the unicorn and not a whole lot else, but I did spend much more time around the show than others. I also made a lot of friends who would continue to shape my life and acting career. Spending so much time around the show I gathered a lot of memories and a whole gaggle of crazy stories. For example, they gave us (12-13 year olds) real honest to goodness swords. That’s right, all the fight choreo was done with actual metal. During one show Edmund’s siblings forgot to notice he was missing and they just had to add the dialogue back in two scenes later to make up for it. It came of as an after thought and was kind of funny in it’s own way. OH! OH! Remember all those statues Aslan brings to life, those were actual characters and they did like modern dance to Enya or something along those lines. It was really experimental and odd, especially as a child. I think as an adult I would have been all about it. But the best part in my opinion, was our Aslan. He was very effeminate and had a very noticeable lisp. Just imagine with me if you will a regal and divine character played by a 6 foot tall lisping teen…in a white pimp suit. You read that right. Our Aslan wore a white three piece suit and walked with a cane. I know what they were going for but man did they miss the mark. And the cherry on top is that when Aslan died in the show they asked him to make this painful roar, but every time he tried it just sounded pleasureful… Honestly any of those things on their own would have been fine, but together it just created a really interesting portrayal of everyone’s favorite god lion. So when I started to work on this blog I sat down to watch my production, just like I do before I write every post. I do this for multiple reasons. I watch the video so I can recall funny stories or interesting tidbits and I watch for nostalgia. Sometimes though I watch these videos simply so I can recall what the H*LL the show was about. That was the case with Babes in Arms. I remember the music alright, but due to a skippy DVD and possibly the quality of the show itself I still can’t tell you what happens in the show. Give me a second….
….Okay so I just checked Wikipedia (the most reliable place on the internet) and it tells me that Babes in Arms is the story of some Long-Island Teens who put on a musical to avoid being sent to a work farm while there parents are away for 5 months trying to revive Vaudeville. So good news, I know what the musical was about…bad news I kept thinking the musical should be about something more. I think the thing that really shines about this musical is the music. I love some of the music from this show. I think a lot of it is charming. Notice that I don’t say all of it is charming. There are a few songs that I always skip on the cast recording. But it’s got the beautiful, “My Funny Valentine”, the comedic “I Wish I Were in Love Again”, and the brassy, “The Lady is a Tramp” and those songs are absolutely stunning. But never fear, I just read on Wikipedia that the show was cleaned up and the racial and political material was reduced and the song order rearranged. The kids were also just trying to save a summer stock theatre instead of trying to avoid being sent to a work farm. However we somehow ended up doing the version with all the racial and political overtones. This may be part of the reason I found myself rather bored with the story. And while I don't have any stories from the actual show to tell, I do have an embarrassing story about what happened after. I wore this black velvet dress in the show. You know the kind; cheap and when you sweat fabric pills up in your arm pit. So after the show I see my crush and I go to congratulate him on a show well done. I raise my arms high above my head in my cute tank top. He looks at me and not in a good way. He stares, but like below my eye line and the left and right. He looks shaken. I slowly look down to realize this dress has given me terrible gorilla hairy pits. I remember standing there muttering to myself while trying to wipe the stuff away, somehow my arms are still in the air, while trying to ignore the whole issue. Me and that boy...you guessed it. We dated. Haha. Yes I also had to pause the DVD to take a picture of how skinny I was in this little black button up dress. Haha. But seriously this is one of the plays I least remember being a part of but I have so many of the songs in my library and to this day I find a reason every now and again to perform one. So maybe I didn’t take away a lot from the story, but thank you Rodgers and Hart for the music. |