I didn't really expect to get full swing into the Theatre Department during my freshman year at Eastern New Mexico University. It was, after all, my minor. I had actually signed up for more Communications classes than Theatre classes that first semester in 1982. I just thought it would be something I wouldn't really devote that much time to. However, the lure of participating in live theatre proved to be too much and I dove in head first before I knew what was going on.
After I was not cast in the first production "How the Other Half Loves," I volunteered to work backstage. Even though I was not in the cast, I did get to go out on stage in between scenes to remove and set props. One of the things I was proud of was putting a large teddy bear in a rocking chair, which was the first thing the audience saw when the curtain opened. I liked that my little touch got to stay in the final production.
I didn't get cast in "The Threepenny Opera," either. My audition consisted of singing a song and learning a dance routine. The dance instructor showed up to demonstrate the routine. She told the students she knew that it was easy. You've probably seen that episode of "Friends" in which Joey has lied on his acting resume that he has studied a lot of dance. During the call-back, the choreographer enlists his help in teaching the dancers the routine. He starts by saying, "Oh, it's an easy routine," and then goes into all these moves that would be simple for an average dancer, but extremely complicated for anyone who hasn't studied any dance. That was how the routine at the audition appeared to me.
Since I was doing really badly in a lot of my classes, I decided not to work on the crew of that production. But I still had to show up and help strike the set. I went backstage before the show was over so I could be there to take things apart. When some people saw me, they would ask, "What are you doing back here?" I found out later that there was some sort of rule that said that if you weren't part of the cast or crew of a production, you were not allowed to be backstage. This would include rehearsals and performances. However, I saw everybody violate the rule during rehearsals. Of course, no one told me this beforehand, but they acted like I was supposed to know.
One thing that worked in my favor during my freshman year was that the Theatre fraternity was planning its Evening of One Acts. I submitted a play that I wanted to direct. My selection was not chosen. However, they decided they needed a short play to be performed in front of the curtain while sets were being changed between two of the plays. I came up with the idea for "Allergies" from the incident with Pad and Scod. I was surprised when it was selected and that I would get to direct. I got to sit in with the other student directors during the cattle call auditions and choose my cast. After rehearsing and getting it down, the Evening got canceled. First, one of the productions had to pull out because of problems getting the cast to rehearse. Then, another one shut down because one of the actors decided to take a leave of absence from school. With two one acts and my little "skit," there wasn't enough to fill an entire evening. I would later use "Allergies" as my Advanced TV Production project my junior year, but I had problems doing even that.
I was not selected for the cast of "Fiddler on the Roof," which was the first production of the Spring semester. It was also directed by Dr. R. I could have been in it if I had signed up for one of the choirs, but I wasn't ready to get into the music aspect of college. If I'd realized I was going to go 0 for 4 in the productions my freshman year, I would have just joined that choir and been in the show instead of being the light board operator.
The fourth production was "Blithe Spirit." The campus bookstore had copies of the play, so I purchased one with the intent of studying it in order to improve my chances of getting cast. But by the time I had decided to dig in, it was a week before the auditions. I didn't get cast even though it was being directed by Mr. H and I was one of the few students on his good side. I was credited with doing the sound design for the production, but Mr. H kept wrangling the project out of my hands.
The only acting I got to do outside of class was at the Southwest Theatre Conference and an advanced directing scene. I think the student doing the directing took pity on me and put me in his project just for the heck of it. It was fun, but I don't think anybody noticed they hadn't seen me do anything before.
I knew I was going to be around for the summer session, so I auditioned for "Stop the World! I Want to Get Off!" directed by Dr. R. I still did not get cast. I wound up working the lights, both setting them up and running the light board.
Also during the summer, a few of us Theatre students performed a weekly improvised soap opera called "Suds" in the Coffee Shop. We actually had a large following by the end. However, it was not without its drama. Right before we were going to perform the third episode, the main guy in charge wanted to cancel it because he didn't like how the rehearsals had been going. None of us wanted to cancel it, so we actually performed it and it came out a whole lot better than we expected. In fact, it was probably better than our first two episodes. During the run, I played two different characters. They were twin brothers. One died early on and the other replaced him in the next episode. It was something fun to do during the summer when we didn't have a whole lot of other stuff going on.
But the one thing that had the largest impact on me was my Beginning Acting class that I took during the fall semester. As I wrote before, my choice of time for the class immensely affected my participation in the Theatre Department for all four years.
I needed to have Dr. R as my acting instructor. When I found out Ms. C was teaching my class, I didn't think it made much of a difference. This was until the next semester, when I got a chance to see how he ran his class. He had his students do some deeply intense acting exercises and improvisations. Everything Ms. C taught us was stuff I had already learned in high school. When I mentioned that I ran into Dr. R before that first class, I really wish he had said something along the lines of, "You're in the wrong class. You need to be in my class." I guess he didn't expect Ms. C to be such a sub-par acting teacher. Dr. R's class leaned more toward learning how to be a method actor. Ms. C's class was more focused on learning lines and trying to say them in an manner that sounded somewhat intelligent.
I already knew I was off to a bad start before entering college because I had already seen amazing acting from the schools in Albuquerque. I was hoping to be able to at least get to that level, but Ms. C just wasn't going to make that happen. Dr. R came and substituted for Ms. C for one class and watched us run through the scenes that we were preparing for our final. He gave some valuable critiques, much better than what Ms. C had to offer. After the class, I heard Chud's partner tell him that they needed to get with Dr. R to improve their scene. When they performed the scene for Ms. C, she had nothing but BAD THINGS to say about their presentation. I think she found out they got coaching from Dr. R and was angry about it.
Because I didn't have Dr. R as my Beginning Acting teacher, he didn't really get to help me grow as an artist. He only ever expected surface acting out of me and nothing more. This was why he never cast me in any major roles in the mainstage productions he directed. I only ever got minor roles, but at least I did get cast from time to time. I just know I was capable of more.
But despite these setbacks, I did feel like I made headway during my sophomore year. That will be tomorrow's post.
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