A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Theater :: Personal Narrative Acting Papers

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Theater September 5, 2000: First Audition Less than a week ago, I had never auditioned for anything. Tonight, I was on stage with forty or so actors, most of whom had several plays to their credit. As I had neither a major, nor past plays to back me up, I was nervous. I survived it all anyway, and had fun despite the scary scary evaluative process. September 7, 2000: Callbacks The hyper-talkative freshman girl in my French class looked at the callback list before I had a chance to. She wouldn’t tell me if my name was on it, she only wanted to whine that hers wasn’t. After our classes were done, Kaitlin and I checked the list, and were both called back for both possible plays. (yeah!) The second round of auditions began at 7PM, so I had just enough time to get there after standard Thursday night wine tasting. My sister said it would bring me luck, â€Å"I would cast a cute pink-cheeked girl over a regular girl any day!† September 8, 2000: Cast List I’m in a play! Yeah for me! Yeah for me! I’m in a play and I have never been in one before! I have a character name and everything. I am Myrrhina in Plautus’ Roman farce â€Å"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Wedding.† My character is a drunk. Perhaps those pink cheeks gave me the edge I needed. Rehearsals start Monday, preliminary costume fitting after work today. Oh my. September 11, 2000: First Rehearsal I was the first one to arrive; Askanase auditorium was dark as I stepped tentatively onto the stage. A conference table sat with roughly 20 chairs guarding the periphery. My role prior to this point was that of an audience member; tonight, I entered a new world. Sitting in the glare of the harsh work lights, the chairs of the auditorium were hardly visible. I took a spot at the center of the table, not wanting to be too close to either end. I faced the door so that I could see the others as they filed in. Several of the cast members knew each other, I know them only as staples of the NDSU theater community. The group dynamic is a little intimidating; I hardly spoke at all tonight.