As of Saturday, I just finished my run with a community theatre production of The Wizard of Oz. In which, I played Dorothy! Absolutely wonderful experience. Even the really crappy parts of being part of a community theatre. At least, this specific theatre.
First of all, the director was very disorganized. Though, one should expect that from the creative mind, I suppose. But, he was also cocky and power-hungry on top of that, so the disorganization got that much harder to get over.
Second, there were, I guess, a lot of little things that kind of added up throughout the whole rehearsal process. Then again, these are things I expected. So, I hated and loved all of them so much. So, very much.
But, the one thing that made it a little sad, was the politics between the board and our, admittedly, easy-to-anger-and-overractive-drama-king director. This lead to one of the worst performances of our 13-show run, the banning of our director from the theatre, and a promise from all of the adult cast members to refuse to do the show if he wasn’t allowed back for the rest of the run.
In the end, though, we got what we wanted, the director came back, and the show finished without much of a hitch.
But, I think that the best part of the whole thing was meeting all of the people. Everyone completely trumped the entirety of the drama behind the scenes. I made so many close friends throughout the whole process, especially, this one little group of friends that I don’t think I can live without now. All of the children were so talented and friendly and lovable. And almost all of the adult cast were so completely amazing. We all sincerely hope to do a show with each other again someday.
Without seeing them for hours and hours every week, I’m not sure what to do with myself. I’m a little lost without Oz!
This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I don’t think I’ll ever have it again with any other cast. Not to say that any other shows I do won’t be important to me, but this one was just the right combination of people and enthusiasm and musical.
The Tuesday of our final week, I auditioned for another theatre’s production of Fiddler on the Roof. The whole Oz cast told me that I had to send an email to let them know whether or not I got the role. THree days after our final performance, I was called and told that I had been cast as Tzeitel. After telling my parents and calling my Mom-Mom, I emailed the whole cast. They’re all so excited and have already started planning to come see the show….in July! In turn, I can’t wait to see those that were cast in Bye Bye Birdie this coming June, because we miss each other so much!
This Saturday, we’re going out to see The Hunger Games. I can’t wait!
The point of this post is, I love this theatre thing so much, I don’t care that I’m not being paid yet. One day, I will be. I will make this my career. It will happen. But, for now, the stage and the connections I’m making are more than enough.
Becca Has Words 