Now Playing: The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring
Juneau Lyric Opera held auditions for Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" over the weekend. Sheryl signed me [Michael] up for an audition on Saturday, and callbacks were earlier today (Sunday).
Somehow I never really doubted that I would get a call back, especially since I took the extra measure of getting the sheet music to the pianist several days before. For the audition I sang a 1904 piece titled "Uncle Sammy", which has some ironic political satire when performed for contemporary audiences ("When Uncle Sammy rises in his might, he's always sure he's right, when he begins to fight"). They invited me to callbacks at the conclusion of the song, even before the laughter died down (it can be taken as a very funny song today), gave me a copy of the libretto, and asked me to look at Ko-ko's part.
As with most of the shows I've done, I knew very little about this show before the audition, but through You-Tube Sheryl and I were able to watch several interpretations of many of Ko-ko's songs. Some of the melody lines were familiar too, since one of the "Veggie-Tales" episodes used several songs from the Mikado.
I enjoyed the callbacks. A large part of my satisfaction in doing theatre in Juneau is in knowing many of the local amatuer actors, and the group assembled today included several people I've had the pleasure to work with before. There were some new faces as well, which is another benefit of doing theatre. The music for the callback was difficult but that hampered everybody equally (with the exception of one lady who either knows the melodies or can sight read sheet music, and another who sang one of the songs from memory). The dialog was easy enough. I also got a little boost from my You-Tube meanderings, as the last song chosen for the callback was one that I heard a great deal of the night before, enough to put the melody line in my head so all I had to do was to sing the lyrics off the sheet music.
I got the call offering me the part at 8:30 this evening.
Rehearsals begin in March, with shows in the first two weekends of May. It will be the first show in Juneau's new high school, which adds a little twist to the production because nobody knows what state of completion the auditorium will be in by then (students began going there this term, but construction work continues in at least some areas of the complex).
Something to look forward to.
