Being a Cat

I had an audition on Saturday for Cats. It's not the type of show I would ordinarily audition for. I'm not an exceptional dancer. I also don't know the show very well, and Webber isn't my favorite. But I'm eager to be in a musical again, so I'm pretty much trying out for everything.

And I had a blast at auditions!

Well, with the exception of my nervousness during the singing audition. What is going on with me? I started out fine, and then I started feeling panicky. And, I was the second-to-last person to sing ... and most of the people who went before me weren't really singers. They ranged from bad to okay to good, but nobody was terrific. I didn't have anything to be nervous about really. But there I was singing, while my insides were jumping all over the place. *sigh*

After the singing was the dance. First we learned the dance combination. It was tricky, but not too hard. After learning it, we performed in pairs. When I performed, I did it the best I had done it to that point, and didn't mess up the steps. ... And then we had to do it again! That unexpected turn made me nervous, and I messed up the second time. (In fact, they had to start the music over. And then I still kind of messed up the second time through.) Oh well. I wasn't going to out-dance the other dancers anyway. Overall, I was pleased with my dance audition. Then we did a series of kicks and leaps and crawling on the floor (to show our extension and movement abilities).

We ended with improv. They'd pull up two or three of us and give us a scenario (e.g. cats fighting then making up, cats stalking something or being stalked). So much fun! It was one of those situations where you could really let go of your inhibitions. I didn't worry about looking silly or stupid — because it was a given that I was going to look silly and stupid! So I just committed to what I was doing. After one round, I realized that I was so involved in that little world that I had no awareness of the production team or the other auditioners. And it was so freeing to crawl and jump around like a cat! It's so different from my normal life of sitting behind a desk.

After the auditions I was extremely sore and tired, but it was a great time and totally worth it. I'll find out today or tomorrow whether I got cast.