All through my life, I've been in theatre. In High school, my favorite shows were musicals.
My first EVER musical- Bye Bye Birdie in 7th grade. That was the best show of my life to this day. I was a chorus member and I was completely fine with that (that's how good the show was!). I learned how to stage faint, I was allowed to run around shrieking on stage and when asked to fawn over Conrad Birdie I wasn't just acting. Our Conrad Birdie was a babe. I'm sure we were yelled at, I'm sure we had to do scenes over and over again. But I have successfully blocked that out of my memory. Now anytime someone plays a song from it, or decides to perform a number from it, I have this selfish reaction like, "What? That show's mine!"
As I entered High School all I wanted was to just get into Seussical my freshman year. The dance for the audition was being choreographed by my (now ex) boyfriend's mother. I thought this would be an advantage for me.
It wasn't.
I had practiced every step. I did the ponies, the ball-changes, the weird downward fist pump walk she had us do, and I was confident that I would win her over.
About 2 minutes before I was supposed to enter the room, I was going over the dance in my head and marking the motions half heartedly when my heart started going a mile a minute. This was not typical anxiety. My heart literally started into almost a murmur. Now, as you could imagine, I'm freaking out. I'm grabbing peoples hands, slapping them over my chest and asking them if they felt how fast it was going. I was trying deep breaths, pacing up and down the hallway outside the choir room where we were dancing.
My group was called. As I fell into line I silently panicked that this heart thing wouldn't go away by the time it was my turn to dance. Soon enough, heart still racing, my turn came.
I was preoccupied with my heart racing and then preoccupied with looking like my heart wasn't and that left little to no brainpower for the stylizing the dance. I plopped around the front of the room, a wiry smile plastered across my face.
It was disastrous. As you can imagine, I did not make it into the spring musical that year.
The next year I auditioned for Anything Goes and got in as "Model." I thought this meant I would have a line. What it actually meant was that I was a chorus person that had a special stage cross during a particular scene. Big woop. Nonetheless, I tried my best to make a come back with my dancing abilities. I was rewarded by being put in the front of the stage (almost center! I told myself sometimes) during a big production number, "Blow, Gabriel, Blow."
The funny part about this song is that recently, our director had seen some people doing the Soulja Boy Superman dance around school. In every dance number, we leaned on our right foot, crossed in the middle and leaned on our left foot. 1920's musical...with some Soulja boy.
We thought this was hysterical.
It's interesting that I don't remember the shows where I had a bigger part as well as I do being in the chorus. There were no lines to memorize, and until there was a big production number we giggled in the wings, fixing each other's wigs. We re-did our lipstick a hundred times over and practiced our dances in the tiny back hallways together.
Whenever I hear these songs I remember all the auditions, all the laughs, the rush of being under the lights, the smiling so big it hurt. I would give anything to do it all again.
I am a proud chorus member.
OH MY GOD, I was in Bye Bye Birdie too! It's such a fun ensemble to be in (especially fainting over a hunk Conrad). I can absolutely relate to this! The shows that I've been in with a large role, while nice (especially for that diva ego that every actor has a little bit of), haven't been as bonding as being a member of the ensemble.
ReplyDeletePS. I have a crush on Harvey Johnson.
While I was never in any school plays, I have a lot of friends who have been (in both major and minor roles) and they described their time in just the same way. The smaller the role, the more time they had to hang out with and get to know their fellow cast members backstage.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I love the idea of this play becoming so ingrained in you that you almost view it as your own. I think this really says a lot about how much your time in the play meant to you; I know that I feel somewhat similarly about the musical South Pacific.
Ahh, school musicals. I was on stage crew, and reading this reminds me of all of the cast members. It really is like a whole other world with them. Just like you described, they would be running around backstage, going wild, while us stage crew members laughed at how crazy they were. I'm sure if I was in the musical I would be the same way, but it's funny to read about your experience and see that it's the exact same as the kids at my school!
ReplyDeleteOh boy. When I was in 8th grade, my best friend and I were somehow wrangled into making the 'costumes' for the spring musical, 'Chesapeake Dream.' You've never heard of it, have you? It's because it was written by my 8th grade English teacher. Now I love Mr. Aaron, but he should stick to teaching Shakespeare, not writing musicals. Anyways, My friend Gussie and I were the official Costume Directors. We were basically forced to do it because we were the only two people in the entire 8th grade who actually did well in Art. So we had to spend 3 hours after school EVERY DAY making hats out of paper and clay for the crabs, oysters, and various other creatures of the bay for that play. It was HORRIBLE. I'll try to find a picture and send it to you.
ReplyDelete