Musical Theater

As long as I can remember I've enjoyed being on stage. When I was about 7 years old I played a tree sprite in a school play. The older class performed a humorous version of of Robin Hood. I was jealous of the older kids, including my brother, who actually were allowed speaking parts. There were no speaking parts for kids my age, but I (perhaps naively) believed that I could perform admirably.

Likewise, in sixth grade my class planned sketches for a school assembly. I had big ideas and imagined myself decked out in a harness and wires and being lowered onto the stage as Ra the sun god. The teacher decided not to use my ideas and our sketch ended up being something much less technically challenging. And much less memorable as evidenced by the fact that I don't remember what we ended up doing.

Years later I auditioned for the high school performing arts program; I got in during my first audition. They complimented my accent and my waltz. I spent the next four years in the program. I wasn't the only freshman to find space in the program, but there weren't many of us.

The program's standard routine was a song and dance show in the fall, a musical in the spring. We also added to the school choir for various events. Realistically, we were a musical theater program. We sang, we danced, we acted. We never did Shakespeare. My fit in this group was based solely on whatever acting merit I had, because I had no talents for song or dance (despite compliments of my waltz). I think the major strength of my acting lay in my ability to memorize. I had little trouble in learning my dialogue quickly and precisely.

Anyway, there were no auditions for the fall show. As a group we would find musical numbers to fit our theme, small sketches to connect them , and then divide out the work between us. We would choreograph them ourselves and I was never required to learn more than a few simple steps.

The fall shows required auditions. Everyone auditioned and then the teachers assigned roles to everyone. I don't remember what parts I auditioned for, except for my first year. It doesn't matter though because I rarely (possibly never) got the parts for which I auditioned. Freshman year we did the show "Crazy For You". I auditioned for the part of Bela Zangler; I got the role of Sam the Cowboy. The rest of the shows were as follows:

Sophomore: Guys & Dolls--Joey Biltmore
Junior: Oklahoma--Guy named Mike who previously bought a sweet-potato pie.
Senior: Anything Goes--The Porter

My senior year I also did work as a student director/producer. It was fun, but then I went off to college. I kept intending to audition for shows, but never found the time. In my mind I directed and performed versions of "12 Angry Men" with my friends or put on "The Fantastiks". It never happened. High school seemed the end of my scripted acting career. Musical theater abruptly stopped being a part of my life.

Eventually I replaced scripted theater with improvisational comedy and continued that for eight years. It was four years since high school, but I was back on stage. Performing without a script thrilled me. There was occasionally music too. It was great to do something I loved. However, I moved and my group didn't. I tried forming a new group, but it hasn't stuck yet.

So what's my point? I've been missing the stage for the past few years. I miss rehearsals, ad-libs, costumes. I want back on stage. A month ago I grabbed the season brochure for the local "Arts on Tour". Not only have I not been performing, I haven't been attending theater either. I was hoping to see something to entice me to buy season tickets. I keep meaning too. At the back of the booklet was an advertisement for "Spamalot". I got excited! I have wanted to see Spamalot for quite some time, and here it was being done local. I'm thrilled.

Then I did some more looking. The tickets were going on sale mid-September, but the show didn't open until late January. I went to the theater group's webpage to find out more details where I happily discovered that they hadn't even cast the show yet. In fact, they were planning three workshops before auditions and they hadn't even done the first workshop. Wheels in my head started turning. I fantasized about being on stage again. I broached the subject to my wife, explaining my thought processes; this involved worries about how much time it would take and what I would have to give up in order to do Spamalot. Without hesitation she told me that if this was something I wanted to do she would support me all the way and make it work. My wife is awesome! We both know she'll be the one sacrificing for this.

Flash forward a month. I've attended two workshops, bought the soundtrack, listened to it endlessly, started going through the script. Auditions aren't until Oct. 12th, but I'm trying to get ready now. I want to be in this, and I want to be in this big. My biggest weakness is that I can't sing and Spamalot is a musical. True, it's Monty Python so the singing doesn't have to be fantastic, but it has to be passable and I'm not sure I'm even that good. So I've been singing in the car, in my office, on the walk to work. I've been singing endlessly. I've checked out several books on singing technique. I'm working on this all the time. There's not much time, but any improvement will be good.

I thought I was making progress, until this last week when I recorded myself. Needless to say, everything was bad. Not just the singing, the acting as well. And I realized it was because I was trying. I was trying to sound like the man from the soundtrack and it wasn't working. I was "acting" and it was obvious. So I've got about three weeks to stop acting and remember how to have fun. To relax and just let it happen. And I need to remind myself that I used to sing on stage all the time with improv; this isn't unfamiliar territory. I can do this.

So this is what is about to take up a major portion of my life. Be on the lookout for how well I did after the auditions.

Also, check this out: