The Auditions

Yesterday was the day Joy and I had looked forward to with excitement, fear and anticipation for months - the auditions for the Wizard of Oz.  They ran from 10:00-1:00, but because we went to church first, we didn't get there until a bit past 11:00.

When we did arrive, they had done the Dorothy auditions and were at the tail end of auditioning for the Scarecrow, Tin man, and the Lion.  Obviously, none of those roles would suit either me or Joy, but the directors knew that we were wanting for both try out for Dorothy and I also wanted to try out for Glinda.  Because The Wizard of Oz is a musical, for a part, you have to present both singing and acting skills.  Not long after we showed up, Joy was asked to read for Dorothy.  The scene was right at the start when Miss Gulch is arguing with Uncle Henry and Auntie Em about Dorothy's dog who allegedly bit Miss Gulch on the leg.  Dorothy is tearfully pleading to be allowed to keep her beloved pet.

To an extent, it was hard to put heaps of emotion into what you were saying, because you had to constantly be reading the script to make sure you didn't miss where you were supposed to say something.  There was one scene I had to play Dorothy where the Wikard Witch of the West and Glinda are discussing the death of the WWOTW's sister and the possession of the Ruby Red Slippers.  It was quite a long scene, and I only got one line - "Oh it's my fault!  I'm so sorry - my house dropped on top of her!"  Or something like that.  But there was a lot of acting for me still because I had the WWOTW screaming at me half the time to hand over the slippers and condemning me for killing her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East.

The second scene I got to act for was when Dorothy and the Scarecrow find the stiff and rusted Tim Man in the forest.  This one was heaps of fun!  Someone I don't know played the Scarecrow, but our friend Jeremy played the Tim Man.  There was quite a bit of dialogue between the three of us as Scarecrow and I oiled down Tim Man with the oil out of the oil can ("Oil can what??"  XD)  I then had to pretend to bang Jeremy on the chest to hear how hollow he was as he related sorrowfully to us that he had no heart.

The directors were really lovely and kind - there were four on the auditioning panel all up: the two production directors, the vocal director, and the music director.  They 're-wound' the program so that Joy and I could sing for Dorothy.  Predictably, the song was "Over the Rainbow" and so we have been practising it for weeks.  Joy was the first to sing it.  She sang it beautifully, I thought.  She was very nervous and sang softly, but she remembered all the words and stayed in pitch.  :)

Then... it was my turn.

I wasn't feeling particularly nervous, but I stood up the front and promptly forgot the words to half the song.  The vocal director was feeding me the lines and I still forgot them.  Doh!  Needless to say, the acting was much more fun.  XD

I did also sing the Glinda song, which went much better ironically seeing as I had never heard it before or practised it.  I heard two other ladies sing it before me, then a very kind lady (who actually ended up getting the part) gave me her music and I sight sang it.  It was very fast and very high (most of the song was above C5.  I'm am soprano, so I don't find that to be that high if I have practised before hand... which I hadn't.)  Anyway, I think they forgot afterwards that I was auditioning for Glinda because I didn't get to act any of her talking parts, but that's ok.  :)

There were some wonderful actors there.  There were some terrifying women in that room when they started screaming abuse at Dorothy, but it was wonderful to watch - and we haven't even started rehearsals yet!

Early yesterday evening I got a phone call from the directors.  They thanked Joy and me for auditioning and said we both really suited the part of Dorothy and were very lovely and feminine, however this tie they felt they needed to choose someone with a bit more experience for the role.  We had expected as much, but the directors did double check that we both still wanted to be in the chorus - munchkins, trees, flying monkeys, poppies, etc - and we very gladly said we would.  We are both thrilled because, even though we didn't get a main role, we will be working with some wonderful people and musical theatre is something we have been wanting to do for quite some time.

You are probably wondering who did get the roles to Dorothy and the other main characters.  I do know - and I am terribly excited about it because I know these people - but I don't want to say yet as the news is still fairly fresh and they may want to share the news first!  ^_^

The rehearsals start the first first week of the first term in January/February and we have two (later three) rehearsals a week until the shows in May/June.