These days, theatre has become an obsession. In high school and college, theatre was an important part of my journey to adulthood. The last year has been a sort of homecoming. I’ve written about this previously on my blog. These days I take great delight in imagining a future when live performance is a part of my regular routine. During callbacks for Legally Blonde<\/em>, Katie Hahn, the director of the show, apologized to all of the participants for all of the time we were sitting around at the Paramount waiting for our audition. Apologize?!! I was grateful<\/em> for the opportunity to sit there, to listen to other performers and to perform myself. When I’m around theatre folks, I feel like I’m around “my people,” so to speak. When I attend a theatre performance, I can’t help but root for the performers on stage. To see an actor nail a scene, to see a song performed so well that it sends chills down the spine… these are moments I relish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are finally in rehearsals for Legally Blonde<\/em>! We had our table read two weeks ago as an entire cast. Waiting for the first rehearsal was almost like waiting for Christmas. It is so exciting to get to be around other theatre folks who know the joy of performing on stage. I already have some relationships with several of the performers who performed in Sweeney Todd<\/em>, but most of the cast are new to the Paramount stage, and the whole cast skews much younger than last year. The majority of the cast consists of college students from our three local universities, most of them theatre majors.
My summer rhythm for this show is quite different from last year. Last year, practice was an every-evening ritual. Since our table read two weeks ago, I’ve had just two evening rehearsals. Callahan is an important character, but he isn’t on stage half as much as many of the other named characters. That said, Callahan has one of the best songs in the show, “Blood in the Water.” I’ve got the lyrics and music down pat and am so looking forward to staging the song next week. Being around these young actors is such a delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n