It's no secret to literally everyone who knows me that I love theater. Every year my class mates would expect to see me onstage for the season's school play and/or musical. Over the years I've been many different characters and have gone to many different places. I've been a fairy in a forest, I've been over the rainbow, a princess and citizen of London.
There is something that all these shows have in common. They were all done through school. I did used to be part of these week long drama camps where we would put on one musical number. But apart from those, all my productions have been done in school.
It wasn't until this month that I finally ventured outside school and auditioned for a community theater company.
Before I auditioned for Studio Theatre, the last show I did was at my college freshmen year. I got bad instructions on how to prepare for the audition, but long story short, a speech from "Game of Thrones" somehow got me casted into a Shakespeare play (apparently the director was a fan of the tv show). After doing that show, and many RIC auditions later, I still had yet to make a cast list. I went nearly two years before booking my next show. Which was really weird because in high school I was doing at least two shows a year.
Over the summer, a drama club friend from high school booked the lead in a local production of "Heathers the Musical". My best friend and I decided to go see the show opening night. The show was fantastic, the production, the cast, the costumes. I wish I had a DVD so I could watch it again.
Later that night, I went on Facebook and noticed that the Studio, the company that did "Heathers", was holding auditions for "Evita" the following week. Fall River, where the auditions were taking place, was about a forty minute drive from my house, half way to RIC. I love the musical "Evita", I had done the show when I was ten-years-old when the high school needed some kids in it. I had heard nothing but positive things about the company and knew I had to audition. Needless to say, I booked the show. I got to be a part of an amazing ensemble of about thirty people supporting a very talented leading cast. Also, the whole production team were kind, hardworking and supportive people.
I've heard stories of how cut throat community theater can be; all the endless backstage drama. I'm happy to report that I experienced none of that with this company. Like I said, the production team was amazing. There was no drama, apart from the drama happening onstage. I found myself genuinely getting along with everyone and we felt like a team.
By the end of our run last Saturday, no one wanted it to end. At least half of us had to hold back tears by the time we took our final bows (which would have been really messy considering all the stage make up we were wearing). We went out after taking down the set to get dinner and it was better than any high school party I could have gone to.
I know I'm fresh off of finishing the show, and still a little bit emotional about it, but doing "Evita" with Studio has been one of the best theater experiences of my life. It was also the first time I had worked with a cast of all different ages, and not all of us were students, so that was really cool. I'll gladly work with any of these people again in anything.
