We just finished up our second day of Racine Theater Guild auditions for “Beauty and the Beast” – 10am-6pm yesterday and 5pm-10pm tonight . . . and I’m pretty sure that every person in the state of Wisconsin aside from Governor Doyle himself tried out for our production. (And who knows- maybe the governor signed up for this coming Saturday, when we’re going to hear twenty more people who were either out of town this weekend or called too late to be fit into the schedule.) All told, about 200 people will ultimately audition for a cast of about 30.
It’s a truly amazing experience to hear this incredible array of people step up on that stage and audition. Some are veterans of the RTG for whom that stage is like a second home and who have performed there any number of times. Others were singing their first audition of any kind ever.
Fortunately, everybody survived. There were no tears shed. And the very worst singers fortunately seemed unaware that they were operating several levels below their compatriots and seemed to be very pleased with themselves, which is great.
I am fascinated by the question of what draws some people to audition. . . because for every person who gets up there and displays some genuine talent and confidence, there will be at least one person who seems to lack any of the qualities one associates with being onstage. They can’t sing- they can’t act- and while some of them might nonetheless have this bit of “ham” in their personality and this hunger for the spotlight, others are incredibly quiet and insecure- seemingly scared of their own shadows- and one wonders if auditioning is their way of trying to step boldly away from who they are or how the world seems to see them. It’s some of those auditions that stay with me most potently.
During one of the breaks tonight I xeroxed a few comic strips from Jeff McDonnell’s “Mutts” – a week’s worth of strips inspired by American Idol, which I thought would be cute to hang on my office door at Carthage. During the next round of auditions, as we listened to someone massacre their song, I found myself imagining how someone like that would be absolutely crucified on American Idol, and all for laughs! It made me really grateful that the RTG has rightfully gained the reputation of being very respectful of each and every performer who auditions- because anyone who has the guts to get up in front of others and do this deserves to be treated humanely- even if their talent appears not to have anything whatsoever to do with the performing arts, to put it gently.
Actually, even the roughest performances typically have some sort of redeeming quality. I’m thinking, for instance, of a young lady who sang a certain Disney song and was a full step flat. . . and apparently unaware. Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer and surreptitiously transposed my accompaniment down a whole step just in time for the refrain – and lo and behold, she was pretty much on pitch for the rest of the song. And she actually had a pretty good set of pipes, if almost no understanding of how to use them, and hearing that powerful alto voice of hers was a distinct pleasure, even if her singing in the cracks was not.
One of the most incredible things about these auditions is to see what people come up with for their repertoire. The veterans of course know the ropes and will come with perhaps three fine musical theater pieces all ready to go and will have the luxury of choosing the one that feel the very best. But someone else might show up with a country western song called “Jesus, take the Wheel” – or maybe a hymn out of their hymnal. Usually, as there was today, at least one person will simply sing the National Anthem. Of course, there are the greatest hits that show up again and again and again . . . This time around I’m pretty sure the sweepstakes were won by “Part of that World” from “The Littlest Mermaid.” We audition people by the hour in groups of ten . . . and that song was sung by someone in the first group at 10, the second at 11, the third at 12, and the fourth of 1. Then we didn’t hear it again until the next day when it showed up two or three more times. I don’t know about Doug, but this is the song that will be waking me up at 3 in the morning for the next several nights!
As great as it was to have so many of the RTG’s “heavy hitters” auditioning for this show . . . and just about all of them are auditioning . . . some of the best moments in these auditions have been when someone basically unknown to us shows up and blows us away, one way or another. That happened with someone today- a guy who appeared to stand around 6 feet 4 inches tall and was built like someone who might have been a very intimidating force on the basketball court if not a middle linebacker on the football field maybe 5 or 10 years ago. But far more dramatic than his height and physique was his voice . . . probably the lowest, deepest, darkest human voice I have ever heard in person in my life. He sang a familiar hymn for his audition and asked for it in the key of G, which is six steps lower than this particular hymn is normally sung in church. And after he was done singing I vocalized him downward and was flabbergasted at how easily and impressively he could sing down to low C; I’m sure he could have gone even lower. (He makes me sound like a junior high girl by comparison.) And this was someone that neither Doug nor I had ever seen or heard or met before. Just what we would be able to do with him remains to be seen – but it was just so incredible to have someone like that just waltz through the door.
One sad and frustrating thing is that so many of our 200 people auditioning were young ladies maybe between the ages of 10 and 12 . Not that we have anything against them, but this happens to be a show where there are basically no roles whatsoever for a really young girl, which leads Doug and I to think that many of these young girls were harboring hopes of being cast as Belle. But all you have to do is think about the rest of this dark story and it becomes crystal clear that Belle cannot possibly be portrayed by a little girl. So I’m sure we broke some hearts when Doug announced to each and every group that auditioned that all of our casting is age-appropriate and that Belle must be a late teen/young adult- but I hope that even the heartbroken young girls got a very positive impression of the RTG and especially of how we treat everyone who comes and auditions. . . from the girl who sings like a bird to the girl who sings like a hinge. (to quote Archie Bunker’s description of the singing of his wife, Edith.) If you’ve got the guts to get out on that stage and sing for us, then we will find a way to listen to even the most awful singing with an encouraging smile on our face and nothing but grateful, encouraging words spoken. American Idol, I am very proud to say, We Are Not.
pictured: Our last set of auditions. The guy in the red
t-shirt is guy who can saunter down to low C without the least trouble. Look how he towers over the two women he’s reading lines with. (Neither of them were short.)