You Can't Take it With You

Today marks the first day of rehearsals for our university theater production of You Can't Take it With You. In other words: today is the first day of the rest of my life.

My journey began this past April when I received a call from the production manager saying that the artistic director wanted me to audition. Beg PARDON?? I enjoy staged readings and I certainly would LOVE to act...but that's not what I do! For reals? For reals. I was asked to audition for the role of The Grand Dutchess Olga Katrina.

What's great about her: she's Russian royalty - which means her costume is going to ROCK. She shows up literally ten pages before the end of the play, has her moment, and we're done. Not a ton to memorize - bonus!

She speaks english, but with a Russian accent, so that's a challenge. I emailed my friend Elisa - a vocal coach - post-haste and asked for the best dialogue sources possible, and she was happy to oblige. Ordered a CD and went to work.

The audition was terrifying and exhilirating all at once. In a stage-managerial capacity, I have watched actors audition for years, and I don't envy them a bit. It's part-skill, part-luck, part-game. An actor can give it their all and just not be what the director is looking for. The audition was fun, but I was glad it was over.

Shock of all shocks - the production manager called me back about a week later and offered me the role. Wow. Do you have the right number?? For reals? For reals. I accepted, but fully believe that our artistic director has lost his mind.

Two weeks ago, I met the costume designer at her shop and was measured within an inch of my life for the costume. Again, I've watched actors go through this process for years - but having someone take a tape measure to YOU and know that someone's going to make a dress especially for YOU - it feels pretty darned great.

Meanwhile - I have taken the plunge and officially applied for undergraduate study at the University. This means: I'm registered as a student this semester and am doing the show for course credit hours. Bringing back my blog posts for the rehearsal and run of the show will be cathartic, and I plan to turn them in to my faculty director as a surprise side-project to prove I was doing something besides goofing off - I mean - memorization in my non-rehearsal hours. I hope to have interesting things to say. I'm nervous and excited!! Stay tuned...