That funny feeling

Tomorrow night, I have my first audition in a while. I haven’t been checking all the callboards and websites that I should have been, but I also haven’t been seeing anything that interested me. And then I saw an announcement for auditions for “Arms and the Man,” by George Bernard Shaw. I’m a big fan of Shaw’s work, going back to a wonderful experience I had playing St. John Hotchkiss in “Getting Married” with the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. It was a blast working with the ensemble members up there, playing around with Shaw’s language and ideas, challenging myself to be both as smart and as intellectually nimble as Shaw was. It’s the kind of acting that I fully embraced for four weeks, and the kind of acting that I would love to do again.

Since I’ve never read the play, I swung by the library after work on Monday to pick up the play, and I read it as soon as I got home. By the time I was finished reading the first act, I knew that I had to be in this show. The writing and the ideas were up there with “Getting Married,” and the opening scene is one that promises to be both touching and funny. The last time that I felt that excited about a show was the first time I listened to the soundtrack for "The Spitfire Grill," or reading the script for "Eurydice."

I've got my sides and my monologue prepared for tomorrow night, and I've been going over them every chance I get. I'm also trying not to over-prepare for this audition, and going to try to let myself live in the moment while I'm reading for it. Having worked at this theatre before, I know that the Artistic Director was always trying to get me out of my head when I perform. From other work that I've done, I know that I've learned how to get out of my head, so I'm working on channeling that in my audition tomorrow. Make it look easy, but make it look good.