My Life in the Theatre: The Read-Through

Don't put that you have gotten a part on social media, I was told.

The show calls for fifteen men and they were still working on getting them all. Fair enough, I thought, but I had to call my mom back and share the news. Since I had only told a few friends that I was auditioning (in case I chickened out and/or didn't get a part,) keeping it secret wasn't really a problem.

I attended the next show at the Phoenix with some of my co-workers prepared to say nothing, and then one of the PSC partners welcomed me with "Hi Martha." Protests were met with "But the newly chosen cast members are in the announcements before the show." So I quickly told my theatre buddies before they heard it from the stage. One of the partners introduced two of the men in The Last Supper A Musical Reenactment cast first (I only saw one of them at the audition and was not surprised that he got a role; the other is an amazing singer/actor). My introduction was essentially that I had used a "sneak attack" method by coming to almost all their shows and "blowing us away with a song from Wicked at the audition." Guess I will use that piece in the future! So the cat was out of the bag. Soon after I posted an incredulous announcement about my role online and got loads of encouragement and congratulations. No turning back now.

The first e-mail to the cast of The Last Supper was the date of our read-through.  We sat around the theatre reading out our lines and listening to the CD of the ten musical numbers. I had already researched the show and downloaded the CD from iTunes because I am a bit of an overachiever. Actually, I figured if I could listen to the songs every morning as I walk around the perimeter of our school gym, I could at least get down the melodies and begin to work on the lyrics as well.  Trouble was, I had no idea what songs I would be singing or even soprano or alto.  Not to mention I didn't have the sheet music yet. I did the best I could, every morning before school, pouring the songs into my head. So I was excited to be handed my script and musical score and sing along with the CD. Even better was I discovered that the part of Martha is almost a cameo role with very few lines, at least compared to most of the guys. I am very grateful.

The following Saturday was supposed to be our first music practice, but due to scheduling issues, it was switched to a blocking rehearsal. That means that our wonderful director, the venerable Sharon A. Wilcox, told us where to stand and what to do for the first few scenes. The cast is large by Phoenix standards, so it was a challenge to fit us all on stage. Some changes already had to made due to stage restraints. I furiously tried to take notes on my music score, hoping to transfer them to the script later. Meanwhile our stage manager, Agnes Dann, recorded all the moves and who sings what on her script. We practiced over and over, and it did get easier. Then some of the guys tried their lines and I was blown away by the acting chops of our cast members.  I can only pray that I will be able to be half as good. In between the rehearsing, we met each other, we laughed, we got some of the details about the production and even got measured for our costumes. I loved every minute of it and two hours flew by.