The day had finally arrived! Opening night was upon us and I went back and forth between excitement and sheer terror. No matter how many productions I have done, pre-show jitters will always be a part of the ritual.
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Live theater. There’s absolutely nothing in the world like it. When the audience take their seats, they immediately fall into a hypnotic trance that is masked by the captivating story told before their very eyes. Compelling and dynamic masterpieces that tell of love and loss; tragedy and triumph; passion and perseverance.
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It was an exhausting week. From continuous run-throughs to us standing on stage for times at the end, just to fix lighting and blocking or even last minute additions to choreography and formation, we were finally ready to show the public what we had been doing for the past ten weeks.
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Rehearsals were in full swing, and that meant a few things. First, the cast members had all settled into their own little groups, coming together when need be but only choosing a few to confide in. Second, you know it’s performance season when your body is five hundred different shades of bruise. Third, with great productions come great expectations.
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It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning when I made my debut in the rehearsal space. But before we talk about my underwhelming entrance and what went on in that rehearsal space, let’s do like Sister Maria and start at the very beginning.
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Frantically searching for sheet music online? Planning to leave your house at 5 am just in case? Fantasising about stepping into the room and the casting director immediately offering you the leading role? Sounds like you’re planning on attending an open audition.
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Whether it’s for a professional show or your school play, auditions are a difficult and panic-inducing process. Throughout my 14 years of experience within the world of theatre I have had countless auditions for everything from professional touring musicals to Am-Dram (the British term for community theatre) plays and pantomimes, encompassing acting, singing, dancing and even juggling once! No matter what the audition is for, I always find I have that shaky, butterflies feeling leading up to it, though I must admit I have much more control over my nerves than I did as a child.
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About a year ago, pop sensation Ariana Grande sang Carpool Karaoke with Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane where she explained her heavy musical theatre background, after which she and her duet partner had sung “The Song That Goes Like This” from Spamalot. If you know pop culture, you know Ariana Grande and that she’s a belter; she has the range and she proves it. That was why it came as a shock to me when I heard her sing in this beautiful operatic voice, because this whole time, I had boxed her in as this pop singer who always belted because she was a diva. As someone who is not a fan of her music, I will admit that, in another world where she chose a path to sing opera instead, I would be an Arianator. Unfortunately for me, she chose the pop angle—which is perfectly fine, since that was the vocal sound she wanted to build for herself— but because of this decision, she has a huge fanbase now and makes millions.
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Actors have a long association with alcohol. There are many famous actors with a history of alcohol abuse, including Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton, Errol Flynn, and Humphrey Bogart, to name just a few. Gerard Depardieu once famously claimed that he could drink up to 14 bottles of wine a day! But famous actors often live by a different set of rules. I wondered how community theater or regional actors would answer the question: Have you ever rehearsed or performed on stage while "under the influence"?
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Pre-Casting sticks in the craws of every unprofessional theatre artist, and probably in a lot of professional ones, too. Spawning drama that makes every stage manager worth their kit roll their eyes into next weekend, pre-casting somehow manages to worm its way into any given conversation about theater.
High school and undergraduate university productions, regional theatres, children’s theatres alike, all seem to struggle with this one concept that actors all loathe somewhat equally. Of course, being pre-cast is flattering, but no actor is happy knowing someone else got a part we were right for, too just because somebody knew somebody else; our egos are too big to allow it. But how do we survive pre-casting and all the evil that comes with it?
By calming down for two seconds, and thinking critically about why it happens.
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