A couple of weeks ago I had an audition for a famous play by William Inge called Picnic. I really like this play and was happy to be going in for the character of Madge (made famous by [URL=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001571/]Kim Novak[/url] in the 1955 [URL=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048491/]film version[/url]).

It was a very hot day (perhaps just like it would be in Kansas in the middle of summer in 1955?) and the moment I stepped out of my car I was sweating. I entered the theatre and headed straight for the water cooler. As I knelt to fill my water bottle I felt a tap on my shoulder which startled me into whirling around. There beside me was an old school mate of mine from [URL=http://www.actactortraining.org/]A.C.T.[/url] I hadn’t seen him since he graduated the year before me and it was a comfort to have him at the audition. As luck would have it, it turned out we were scheduled to read together, which immediately put my mind at ease about the kissing at the end of the audition scene.

I had been dreading the moment in the scene where my character had to kiss the guy. It’s always a little weird when you walk in and say, “Hi, I’m Ali” and then plant a big one on a strange actor’s mouth. I knew it was too important a moment in the scene to simply ignore it, so to find Sky as my scene partner was such a blessing.

We did the scene once and it went so well! The end moment (including kiss and passionate embrace) was so spontaneous and real. Then the director gave us some notes and we did it again, topping the time before. When we finished the second time, those watching teased us and said, “Can we see that last moment again?” So I knew that we had hit the scene with a bang!

That evening I received a phone message from the Artistic Director of the theatre, [URL=http://www.anoisewithin.org/]A Noise Within[/url], telling me that my audition had been delightful and thanking me for coming. He told me that the artistic staff was going out of town for a couple of weeks and they couldn’t make any decisions until they got back. Upon their return they had to see some more people, but that I was definitely in consideration for the role and not to worry if I didn’t hear from them for awhile.

And that was now 3 weeks ago. So…

I am letting go of my hope for the role but I holding on to the wonderful experience I had reading with Sky and the awesome feedback I received on my work.

Who want’s to play a naive 18 year old anyway??
Oh yeah…me.

Darnit. Next time!