When I was in 1st grade, I played the female lead in the class musical - Tiki Tiki Tembo's mother. I even had a couple solos. It seems silly, but I have always taken a certain pride in this moment in the spotlight. I can't imagine there were auditions to play this elite role. But something about 6-year-old Johanna said, "I'm comfortable on stage. Put me in!" (It helped that my teacher was a member of our church and had probably seen and heard me singing in children's choir. The life of a PK, a pastor's kid, is inherently in the spotlight pretty much from the beginning.)
My next real go at the stage was in our 4th grade musical, What Really Happened to Humpty Dumpty, a murder mystery in which two detectives visit the various nursery rhymes trying to "piece together" the tragic incident of Mr. Dumpty's fall. At the center of this investigation, of course, is Mother Goose herself. But, in an totally unexpected twist, the detectives discover that the culprit is Little Red and her Riding Hoods... and that Little Red has been hiding by pretending to be Mother Goose! Well, guess who was Mother Goose/Little Red? Yours truly. (Again, it didn't hurt that my mom was involved in production, teaching us all the music. Helps to have some powerful, inside connections.)
And the next - in the 5th grade musical, Assignment: Earth, in which a group of kids puts together a collection of skits about caring for the earth. Three kids are in charge... and yes, I was one of those.
I was quite the little spotlight hog in those early years.
But after that, nothing. I started playing an instrument, and I played sports, so during times when I might have participated in a play or a musical, I was rehearsing or practicing other things. I never sang in another musical or acted in another play. I did a little improv in seminary, and have found many opportunities to sing, but never in a theatrical way.
But when I see stage productions, there is always a part of me that thinks, "I could do that."
I think of my favorite sermons to preach, and they're the ones where I am silly, dynamic, acting like a ham (just like my parents taught me - love you, mom and dad!). I think of how much I just adore the spotlight - I get such a performance rush. When I finished my senior oboe recital in college, I immediately wanted to do it again. I have always wanted to see if this would translate to a theatre.
Yesterday, Michael and I attended First Unitarian, a very large Unitarian church in town with lots of wonderful and diverse programs. On our way out of the service, we saw a woman with whom we had taken a spiritual improv class. She said she was directing this show, Death Takes a Holiday, and we should audition. I don't know what made her ask, but to both of our surprise, we were really interested! We asked the normal battery of questions, the ones that usually reveal that the performance is during Holy Week, or rehearsals are during midweek services, or some other reason it can't work. But everything she answered was about the best answer it could be for our situation! When are auditions? "Today... this afternoon. In an hour." Oh! So Michael and I went to get coffee, which gave us enough time to decide this would be a really fun activity for us to do together, would get Michael back into theatre (his college major), would give me a chance to try this thing I had for so long wanted to try, and then to choose a couple songs to sing and get back to the church.
We had nothing invested in this. It was as low risk as it could possibly be, with people ranging in age from 14 to probably mid-70s, and ranging in skill from hardly able to hold a tune, to really quite good. If it worked, great; if not, we didn't really care.
Michael has never sung for real, but has wanted to get better. I have never really acted, but have wanted the chance. Turns out, we are both pretty good at what the other wants to learn. So we gave each other tips, and decided the one thing we had going for us in this audition, if not preparation or any knowledge of the show, was comfort on a stage. So we got up there and hammed it up and took command of the stage. I sang Mr. Snow from Carousel, and Michael sang I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie. I have no idea how I looked or sounded (Michael said I had done well, except that I didn't warm up at all and cracked some notes); Michael struggled at first with the singing, but forged ahead and did well once he decided on a key, and he totally rocked on the scene reading. Best one in the room, far as I could tell. We had a lot of fun, and then went home with no expectations.
About 9 o'clock that night, we got an email.... and we were both cast! Small named parts: the maid (Sophia) and the butler (Fidele).
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| That'll be us, the two in the middle. |
We both sing a couple company songs and there is one quartet that we both sing (see above), and then Michael actually has a duet to sing that he's fairly nervous about, but we'll work on it. We haven't seen the scripts or scores yet, but should be getting them soon. We're very excited!
Mostly we are just so tickled that this dropped into our laps. Sunday morning, we had never even talked about trying out for a musical together, and Sunday afternoon, we were both finding this perfect opportunity to try something we have wanted to try for a long time, in a safe setting, and at just exactly the right level to challenge each of us but not overwhelm us. And because my recovery this time around has allowed me more energy, I had what I needed to sing one song and read through one short scene, and sit for the rest of the time.
I'm cancer-free and on the upswing, and it's time to start knocking out some dreams! Let's do this thing!
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