Tomasulo.net

No sketch today. I've burned through my backlog already and last night was the first read-through for Prelude to a Kiss, so I didn't have time to do anything new.

Almost two years ago, I played Septimus in the Tom Stoppard play, Arcadia at the same theater. It was a role I'd played before, and I was really hoping to knock it out of the park. While I've only gotten good comments about the performance, I thought I only did "okay" and have been somewhat down about my abilities since.

Still, this year, I was starting to get that itch again, the one that makes you go on stage and pretend that there aren't 50* people staring at you (even though part of the reason you do it is that you really like the idea of 50 people staring at you). So when I saw that someone I had enjoyed working with in the past -- and who had complimented my work -- was directing a show with 3 parts I would be right for, I made plans to audition.

In between making that decision and the actual audition, my level of responsibilty and workload at my day job increased dramatically (no pun intended [well maybe a little.]) I considered skipping the audition, but, as I usually do, I decided to leave it up to fate (tonight the role of Fate will be played by the casting board). Since there's only a slim chance of being cast, you might as well just go and see what happens. The one thing I decided to do is not put myself down to read for the lead role of Peter. I figured the most I wanted to do was get a walk-on role and hang out backstage.

On Monday, I went to the audition, and I was on fire. I was an unstoppable acting machine. And, of course, I was having a fantastic time. After a year and a half of thinking I couldn't really do this stuff all that well, I was giddy to be proving myself wrong. The director was asking me to read for Peter quite a bit, but I didn't care. Then she asked me if I was commited to only playing one of the smaller roles. I said something dorky, "well, if you were to ask me..." Then I was asked to stay behind to read one more "Peter" scene. All of a sudden I'm in serious contention for a role I wasn't even supposed to read for. My ego was shouting, "Yaaaaayyyy!" The scheduling part of my brain was probably shouting something like, "Nooooooooo!" but I couldn't hear him.

I wasn't home an hour before I got offered the part of Peter, and though the scheduling part of my brain was beginning to make himself known above the din, it was too little, too late. Of course I accepted. How could I not?

I knew it was a big part, but I had never actually read the play. I figured that the bulk of the work would be on the girl and the old man who are really the protagonist and antagonist of the show. Since I didn't have a copy of the script it wasn't until the read-through yesterday that I found out just how wrong I was.

Peter is on stage for every minute of this show. I don't think he leaves the stage for a moment except at intermission.

I am really swimming in the deep end now. This should be fun.