Two auditions down, two to go! Today, we trod the boards for “Red, White, and Swing”, Mr. Blaydes’ pet musical about teenagers during World War II. I arrived slightly nervous, as I wan’t familiar with the music. As I may have said previously, Mr. Blaydes wrote the script, then borrowed music from the period. I tried downloading some of the songs beforehand to practice, but it’s a lot more difficult when it’s a real song. It’s easy to find songs from musicals, because no one messes with them. With normal songs, however, everyone covers them until the point where not a note is the same as the original. Gravy. I briefly toyed with the idea of not singing one of the songs they gave us, but as I went through a mental checklist, I realized that I would need more practice before I jumped into a song I’d never sung alone. I contented myself with the knowledge that I could sing “Whatever Happened to Honor” in a pinch, as Mrs. Wetherington would probably be impressed that I’m writing a musical. Yay. Fortunately, I ran into Lexi, another theatre buff who I share a locker with in gym class. We sang through some of the songs together–mainly “Only Have Eyes”, as we were both trying out for Jo–and generally warmed up our voices.

Then the audition began, and we were sorted into three groups. I went to Acting. I was a bit annoyed inside when Mr. Blaydes had me read for Joan, as opposed to Jo. I think I did rather well. I then went to Dance, only to find that I was the only one there, so I went back to Acting to wait for my group. Apparently we were supposed to go to Singing next (despite Mr. Blaydes saying Dance), so I went to sing “Only Have Eyes”. Again, proud of my performance, considering the practice time invested. Then, Dance. Shockingly, I danced far less pathetically than I have in auditions past. Usually, I step all over my feet and knock into my neighbors, but I actually did decently this time. I remembered to do a lot of nifty arm movement, which makes you look like a better dancer than you really are. I messed up some of the choreography, but I caught up. All in all, probably the least demeted dance audition I’ve done. Go me!

Anyway, I’m pretty excited about the whole deal. When leaving, I saw Mr. Blaydes’ page of audition rating rubbish, full of actors’ names, the characters they read, and either a plus or a minus, with varying intensity. Next to “Priscilla — Joan” was the darkest mark on the page. I’m probably jumping to conclusions, but it seems like a good sign. Originally, this upset me slightly, because I really like the character Jo. But then I remembered that Joan has the most scenes in the musical–3, unlike the multitudes with one or two. In fact, she’s the only one with three scenes, with the exception of the obligatory chorus, making her the closest thing this show has to its nonexistent leading lady. I’m probably setting myself up for diappointment, but it’s still an intriguing idea. I’ll be crossing my fingers.

*grooves*

*rethinks*

*swing dances*