HHYT, Week 1, Day 1

I am currently enrolled in Helen Hayes Youth Theatre (which I'm too lazy to write out completely so we'll just call it HHYT) with Nicki. Mancove is spending this summer playing volleyball, pitching softballs, and being lazy, so it's just two out of the three of us. Mancove has insisted that I mention she goes to church... a lot... against her will... to learn things about God... things she doesn't care about or already knows.

Anyway, Nicki and I are both in Beauty and the Beast, the "timeless classic" about a spunky girl who meets a selfish monster and then falls in love with the monster and he becomes a handsome prince... an annoying and consistent logic that when you become a better person you get more attractive. People are people, regardless of their appearance, and when they become good people, they are still people and can look flawed just like every other person in the world!

Today was day one of the 2 week program. It's the most stressful and nerve-racking day, a.k.a. the audition. An audition is sitting around, more sitting around, standing up and singing, then sitting around, sitting around some more, still sitting, standing up and reading stuff, then dancing, then sitting and sitting and sitting. After the initial audition, there was a reading, where individuals get called to read for a part in front of the entire company. Yeah, scary for some, but Nicki and I both love performing in front of crowds so there was no problem for us. Originally, Nicki and I were both aiming to be Mrs. Potts and Chip. But after a girl named... Bridget tried the part, our director... Luke fell in love with her. She was really good, too, so I knew my shot had just been basically demolished. But Nicki landed Chip without a doubt since she read amazingly and sang amazingly and cartwheeled amazingly and- she was just amazing.

I was prepared to settle for the humble role of "Townsperson 2" when fate hit me. You see, I have a terribly mediocre French accent, but everyone in the cast has terribly terrible French accent, and when I read for Lumiere, everyone fell in love with ME... or my french accent, at least. So I got a callback for Lumiere with... Denise, the other girl up for the part. We sang "Be Our Guest" and "Human Again" which was a lot of fun. It was my first callback ever! Congratulate me!

I'm just going to assume all my imaginary readers congratulated me... and now I can discourage you by saying "I don't think I'll get the part." I can only belt up to a C sharp and the other girl belts an E flat, so I don't think I have the range for the part...

But who cares? It got my first callback ever, a major performing arts milestone for me. You'll find out who I am tomorrow, so stay tuned, imaginary people!