Back to the Stage

It's been about ten months since the last time I did a play, and even that was a little nontraditional since it was a play about people doing a radio show. This means we were onstage with scripts and stands, so it wasn't quite what one pictures when one hears "play." It was a lot of fun and (I think) entertaining though.

So naturally I jumped at the chance to audition for a short play in a group of one-acts Sunday morning. I'd submitted online for the casting a few weeks ago, and assumed I wouldn't be hearing from them. The person calling said they were doing a "second round" of auditions and if cast, my first rehearsal would be about thirty minutes after the audition. The subtext behind this is "We just had someone drop out of a show and if you're not a complete moron or the Elephant Man, you will get his part Sunday morning." Turns out I was mostly correct. Two people had dropped out Saturday, so the two people that showed up for the audition Sunday got parts. Coincidentally the show and rehearsals will be in the same basement theatre in which I did the radio play ten months ago.

I'd forgotten some of the risks you run when auditioning for off-off-(off?)Broadway shows. You have no idea what you're getting into in terms of the script itself and the people with whom you'll be spending quite a bit of time over the next few weeks. This one seems like it'll go well enough thus far. The director/playwright is respectful of people's time, so we won't be rehearsing our dozen or so pages worth of scenes for thirty hours a week til the show. It also looks like he's pretty relaxed in terms of letting actors bring their stuff to the table without dictating too much beforehand what he expects. And the one other actor that was present seems like a nice guy. The script is bizarre, to be sure (the off-off scene isn't too interested in boy-meets-girl scenarios), but in the right hands I think it will entertain and have something relevant to say to the audience.

So now I've got something real to work on this week, instead of sitting around in my underwear watching Mythbusters on DVR. Well, I'll probably still be in my underwear.