Holy Orders...

I am back, and with news...

I have been cast as Friar Laurence in the upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet!

I have spoken of this show here and there over the weeks. On Saturday morning, I went and auditioned.

First allow me to say my audition monologue went exactly as I wanted it to. I had been going over it over the last few days, trying different ways of doing it. I finally went with the "matter of fact" delivery. I was not nervous per se, but I was a bit more...something because I usually do not have to audition with a Shakespeare piece. In fact, most auditions locally do not require a prepared piece. So I knew I had the piece memorized and absorbed, but just the infrequency of reciting Shakespeare in such a venue made it just the tiniest bit more worrisome.

Then the cold readings.

If it is fair to call them cold readings. I HAVE read Romeo and Juliet before, so it would not technically be a "cold" read. However, it has been many years since I have read it, so it was at least, to coin a phrase, a "cool read" for me. I read for just about every male character at some point, with various different other hopefuls here and there. Those readings also went well, and I am particularly proud of my delivery in those readings. True, Romeo and Juliet is one of the Bard's most straight forward pieces, as opposed to say, Richard II thick and symbolic language. Nonetheless it is not a cadence that most of us are used to. And though I read Shakespeare regularly, I have not performed him in several years. It is gratifying to know I am still sharp, or very near sharp, in that regard.

One other factoid of note...depending on how one defines it, this is the second time I have portrayed Friar Laurence on stage. The first time, in my college days, was in the interactive comedy, "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged." In that piece, (wherein ALL of Shakespeare's works are represented in 2 hours) the Friar is, quite literally, a walk on role. I delivered about two lines and a small gag, and left. If it had been any quicker, I would not have even stopped to deliver the lines. I would have just kept walking.

But, it was Friar Laurence, and one of the lines was in fact an authentic line from Romeo and Juliet. So, in that regard, being the good Friar in this production would mark the very first time I have ever played a role twice. (It's all relative, as I said.)

This play has a mere four weeks to rehearse before performing it's single weekend. The script is shortened, but nonetheless it shall be quite an intense month. But the kind of theatrically intense month I very much look forward to experiencing.

And of course, you can follow the adventure right here on the blog. Keep checking back...the updates will start to come very soon.