After my sophomore year turned out better than expected in the Theatre Department at Eastern New Mexico University, I hoped that would mean more involvement in getting cast in the productions. I especially thought this was possible because a lot of the students who came in my freshman year were no longer around to stand in my way.
The first production was "Charley's Aunt." Dr. W directed it. For the first time ever, I got called back for a show he was directing. I thought my chances of being cast were really good. But I didn't make the cut. I didn't think much of it at the time as there were still three other shows I could get cast in. I got to design the lights for the show.
Next up was "Mother Courage and Her Children," directed by Dr. R. This was an epic show with a huge cast. I was going to play one of the soldiers. My character was supposedly in a position of command, but I only had ten lines and appeared in only two scenes, but it was still good to be in the cast. At the read-through, we came upon my first scene. Dr. R announced that he had cut the scene. I thought, "No! That's half my lines!" AND THERE WERE NO OTHER SCENES THAT WERE CUT! As a result, my character only appeared at the beginning of the second act and I was killed offstage after saying my lines. I really felt like I was being punished for some reason. (I did get to appear in the rest of the show as a soldier for those scenes in which we needed more military bodies on the stage, but I didn't have any additional lines.)
I could have gotten a larger role if I'd known to step up. The actor playing Mother Courage's oldest son got sick and missed rehearsals. One of the freshmen actors who played a non-speaking soldier filled in while we were waiting for him to get better. When it became apparent that the original actor was not coming back, they just let the new guy keep the part for the performances. If I'd known that was going to happen, I would have started reading those lines because he was not in that scene I was in. That freshman actor would have just gotten my role.
Then we had the Evening of One Acts. I was cast in a play directed by the same guy who had directed "Asylum" the year before. There were also a lot of cast members from that play in this one. It was a play written by one of the students that was based on the game "Clue." I said in my previous post that "Asylum" was the most perfect performance I had ever been a part of. This presentation was the exact opposite. Actors were dropping lines and forgetting the blocking. Props were constantly out of place. At one point, an actor forgot to change into this jacket that was central to the plot and someone had to throw it at him from offstage. He put it on while saying his lines. And just when we thought it was over, where an actor said, "I want to be Miss Scarlett," the stage lights did not go down. We were just stuck up there. The actor with the last line said, "Let's play!" and we all started putting pieces on the game board and mumbled amongst ourselves while waiting for the lights to go down, which they eventually did. However, we all felt like we were going to be stuck ad-libbing on that stage forever. This was truly an actor's nightmare.
The spring semester brought our musical for the season, "HMS Pinafore," directed by Dr. R. I knew that the material called for people who could really sing. We wound up getting most of the cast from the music department. I did get to be in the choir, which had actual lines to say in unison. However, everybody kept forgetting to come in on cue, so I was often the only person reciting the lines. In addressing the cast, Dr. R was getting fed up with the blown cues and said, "I feel like just giving all the lines to Fayd and having him say, 'What they're supposed to say is...'"
This was not planned, but the operetta had been the first production staged by ENMU 50 years earlier. We actually had some surviving members of that cast come to one of the performances. They still lived in the area. I don't know of anyone from our cast who will easily be able to get there when they mount the next production in 2035.
The final production was "The Importance of Being Earnest." Ms. C was originally supposed to direct this, and I was looking forward to it because I thought she would cast all of us who were in her classes. I saw it as REVENGE against the students who had Dr. R. However, her husband accepted a job at another university and they moved away. On top of that, it was just me and Chud left from our original freshman class. That wouldn't have been much of a revenge.
The other graduate student, Ms. F, was called upon to direct. I did not get cast. However, I did get to be the assistant director. The only problem I had with Ms. F as director is that her style consisted of having the cast learn their lines by paraphrasing the words in the script. This wouldn't have been a problem, but getting deeper into rehearsals, the cast only performed the lines that they paraphrased and not the lines that were cleverly written by Oscar Wilde. Once during rehearsal notes, I asked Ms. F if I could say a few words, and I went into this rant about how everybody needed to say their lines correctly. I was really fed up with it. I said that the words in the script were perfect and no one in the cast was able to come anywhere near speaking that well. It didn't go over very well, not even with the director.
I stayed for the summer session. We did two productions that summer: "Carnival" and "Chapter Two." Auditions were held for both plays at the same time. Dr. W was directing "Carnival" and would have first crack at the cast. Our new dance instructor directed "Chapter Two." After we read a few scenes, Dr. W started talking about this one character named Dr. Glass, who could best be described as a nerdy wimp. While he was going on about him, I realized this was the role I was going to be cast in. He called me up first to read for the part. This meant I was not being considered for any of the lead roles. Come to find out, everyone else at the audition had the same thoughts about me playing Dr. Glass.
My experience playing that part will be the subject of a blog post that will be coming up way, way in the future. I will only tell you now that it involved handling live animals on stage. It deserves an article all to itself.
As it was, junior year was a severe letdown for me, but it still did not prepare me for what I would go through my senior year.
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