I'd only gotten called back for two shows that semester, Cat and Fall Shorts. The director of Christmas Pageant later told me she didn't call me back because, even though she would've liked to have worked with me, she knew I would bet getting a bigger, meatier role somewhere else. I thought that was nice of her to tell me. And I didn't sing that year at auditions because I didn't want to be in the chorus of Tommy, I really wanted to act.
Alan Cooke called me back to read for George in Necessities, one of the two one act plays in Fall Shorts. A wonderful play written by Sally Holmes Meehan. I really hope she writes another one!! :) Anyway, George is a great part, but I really thought it was out of my range because he was the leading man role, and I was always more supporting/character parts.
At the callbacks for the show, I read several times with different combinations of actresses. There is a scene with George, Shelley (I hope I got that right, it's been awhile lol) and her mother. I think I read it twice with different people. I know I read with Donna Robinson at one point. Well, after he'd read dozens of people on stage at Taylor Theater, he kept six of us back and paired us up to read the final scene of the play: Me and Holly Parlatore, DH Johnson and Andrea Anthony, Josh Purvis and Amanda Spivey. We were all COMPLETELY different types so there really was not much clue as to what Alan was looking for.
He gave us the sides for the scene and sent us off to read through a couple of times and then we each headed down to the studio theater to read. Holly and I sat out in front of Taylor and read the scene several times. We'd become fast friends the previous year but had never had the opportunity to work together. The scene itself was pretty intense and I told Holly that I was going to go after her. She said that wasn't a problem and to expect her to come right back at me. We didn't really get into the scene that much when we were going over it because we knew we had the chemistry and needed to save that energy for our reading for Alan.
When we went down to read for Alan, it was magical. Everything fell into place. We barely had to look at the script, it was as if we already knew these people. It was just such an incredible feeling to feel that safe with another actor that I could take myself where I needed to go with it. I remember at one point throwing a chair across the stage, we got that riled up. It's hard to explain why it worked, it just did. And when it was over, Alan thanked us and we left. Holly and I didn't speak much afterwards, but in my mind I knew we had just gotten ourselves cast in Necessities.
When the cast lists went up, lo and behold, there were our names. Holly asked me if I was ok with getting George because she knew how much I wanted to play Gooper in Cat. I told her hell yeah, I was ok with it. It was one of the best acting experiences of my life and no regrets whatsoever.
Till the next theater memory :)
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