Have you ever dealt with a moment in time where you felt like you weren’t doing anything productive? One where you were just going through the motions and letting life pass you by? I had that feeling for the longest time earlier this year.
I’ve been interested in theater for the past 7 months now and that comes from the improv workshop I did in late January. This brought me to Del Mar’s production of ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,’ which was my first time acting.
To put all the years of listening to music, learning how to sing, adding to a new experience of acting was the best time of my life. When the show closed, I wasn’t sure what to do.
Sure, I auditioned for Aurora Arts Theater’s iteration of ‘Putnam,’ but I ended up doing nothing for that production.
Again, I wasn’t sure what to do.
So, I went back to the drawing board over the summer.
That was until I heard about the theater’s next production: ‘The Rocky Horror Show’, but that was it. I didn’t let my lack of knowledge about the production stop me from giving it a shot. I quickly read up on the show and decided to audition. Not only did I read up on and watch the show online, but to get myself used to the theater’s space, I went to Aurora’s opening night performance of ‘Putnam.’
At this performance, I realized that the theater utilizes a live band, unlike the pre-recorded music we were playing along to at Del Mar.
With this knowledge, I wondered if I could play guitar for Aurora…and by ‘wonder,’ I actually mean ‘tell every living soul about my idea of auditioning and going to the band if all else fails.’
One of those people just so happened to know the band director, the woman behind the theater’s live music, and thus put me in touch with her.
it only took a couple minutes of talking with her to secure my place in the band. There were no guitarists at the time, so that became my instrument of choice. Even though I had finally acquired my spot in live music, I still wanted to take a chance at the stage.
Thus, I put down an audition form and spent an evening at Aurora dancing, singing, and acting for the directors. Much like “Putnam,” I didn’t land a spot with the cast, so off I went to the band to learn to play the music.
Most of the learning process was done on my own over the summer, instead of meeting up with the band and learning alongside each other. I was sitting in my bedroom night after night, trying my best to learn the music alongside a Broadway cast recording that I was using for reference.
After about a month of this process, I finally got to meet my fellow bandmates to discuss some changes we were making to the show. It was fun getting to know and hang out with the people I was going to be seeing for the next 8 weekends and getting to cram myself with as much alfredo pasta as I could handle in a night.
Then came the actual rehearsals, when we finally sat down and played as much of the music as we could in one week. We never had everybody there, but we did manage to get through all the music so that was a plus.
Yet again, we had another week where we were all together. We were just playing all the music as if we were performing the show for an audience, though it was just the band, the producers, and the cast all alone in the theater.
That was probably the most fun I had during the audition process. Despite the lack of an audience, the theater really felt alive during that one week. People making callbacks, seeing the cast laugh and joke around backstage, all while everyone had the looming pressure of opening night over their heads just brought my spirits up more than they already were.
Then came the big day: September 20. With all the stakes being set before my very eyes, I was starting to buckle. The show hadn’t even started, and my palms were already sweating. Nothing in all those months could have prepared me for seeing all the audience pile into the theater.
But then something happened: the show begun, and we were playing the music. Once the show started, every bit of my nerves went away. That anxiety turned into to determination as I was hellbent on making sure I played every note of this show to the best of my ability.
Once we had an intermission, I tried to stretch my legs after sitting for so long. Seeing my friends, the people I had bought tickets specifically for this night, be so excited and mesmerized by the production unfolding before their eyes was invigorating yet again. Hearing the audience completely enveloped in shouting at the show brought me out of the funk I was starting to fall into. Being part of the decades-old “Rocky” experience was something I was incredibly glad to be a part of.
Before I knew it, the show was over, and I was out in the lobby making small chat with everyone I could. Now I’ve got to keep up the same performance capacity until November. I had now punched my ticket into the Corpus community theater scene, and it’s something I’ll always be glad I did.
