Tag Archives: auditions

I Don’t Feel Particularly Up and Coming

Posted on February 12, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

For this week’s Non-Sequitur Thursday, I shall take a break from last Saturday’s adventures and look ahead to a future adventure for me: I am slated to direct a play for Ilion Little Theatre. The only writing I did while at work today (sue me) was a press release on the upcoming auditions. I make bold to include it here:

“Ilion Little Theatre will hold auditions for Ken Ludwig’s Leading Ladies on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 29 and March 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the theatre in The Stables on Remington Avenue in Ilion. Five men and three women ranging in age from 20s to 70s are needed. Actors do not need to prepare anything. ILT member Cynthia Quackenbush will direct.

“The hilarious comedy concerns two down on their luck Shakespearean actors who come up with a scheme to impersonate a rich old lady’s nephews to gain an inheritance. When they find out that nieces not nephews are required, they make a slight adjustment in plans. After all, in early Shakespearean companies, weren’t the women’s roles played by men?

“Performance dates are Friday and Saturday April 29 and 30, May 6 and 7 at 8 p.m. with matinees on Sunday May 1 and 8 at 2 p.m. For more information contact Cynthia Quackenbush at ***-***-****.”

I confess to feeling a little overblown, calling it a hilarious comedy. It is pretty hilarious, though. I laughed out loud when I was reading the script. I confess further that it seems to me to be a pretty boring blog post. Sorry, kids, Aunt Cindy is having a bad day (I like to call myself “Aunt Cindy” when I am having a bad day). But I am trying to keep a cheerful heart. After all, tomorrow is Lame Post Friday. As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

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Posted in humor, Non Sequitur Thursday, personal and tagged auditions, blog post, Ilion Little Theatre, lame post, Leading Ladies, press release, theatre. Bookmark the permalink.

Off to Break a Leg!

Posted on April 10, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

The decision has been made to act. I only wish the decision had been made to write my blog post earlier today. In my defense, I was writing a letter to a friend, which I believe is also an important thing to do.

I do want to express how happy I am that my husband Steven decided to audition. I hope he gets a part, but I feel sure we will have fun just going to auditions. We’ll see some friends from Ilion Little Theatre. We may make new friends at Players of Utica. I can write another blog post about the experience. I may even get an article for Mohawk Valley Living out of it. And it will be something fun and different to do on a Thursday evening.

“Instead of sitting around in our sweats, watching TV,” I said to him. “Of course, that’s fun, too,” I hastened to add. Time with my husband is always worthwhile. “We’ll step out of our comfort zone,” I clarified, realizing that is quite literal, because sweats and sitting around is extremely comfortable.

I have to admit, though, it isn’t too far out of our comfort zone. We don’t often venture to Utica after dark, but a friend is nicely driving us. We have never auditioned for Players of Utica, but we have auditioned many times for many plays, and even been cast in a few (full disclosure: Steven more than me). I daresay I am much more comfortable auditioning now than I was many years ago.

Further full disclosure: I am writing this on the fly while waiting for the friend to pick us up. Ah, Monday’s hypothetical critic pipes up and says, “You don’t have to tell us you’re writing on the fly! This post sucks!” Wow, I am writing in a hurry. That is the best insult I could think of for my hypothetical critic. Never mind. I’m off the break a leg!

To Act or Not to Act?

Posted on April 9, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

More specifically, to audition or not to audition? I say audition. Steven is undecided.

The play in question is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Players of Utica. The idea of auditioning came up a few weeks ago, when we were dining with a couple of theatre friends prior to seeing The Psychic at Ilion Little Theatre. Of course, in the moment, we all said, “Yeah! Let’s audition! We’ll all go together! It’ll be great!”

A little time passes. Utica seems further away than it did from Ilion (well, I think it is a mile or so closer to Ilion than to Herkimer, but I suppose it depends on which road you take). We’ve never auditioned for Players of Utica, in fact, we don’t even know where they are. Oh, being in a play is so much time and work. We like to come home, put our sweats on and relax after work. We won’t audition.

A little more time passes. Our theatre friends contact us and say, “Hey, are we auditioning or what?” (or words to that effect). Suddenly we remember why we wanted to audition in the first place. WHAT SHOULD WE DO???

Full disclosure: Steven is the one who is more likely to get cast in this production, and he is the one I would really like to audition. After all, I was just in a play. I love to see Steven on stage. He is an excellent actor. However, I will go along and audition. I like to read for a part and, hey, you never know.

I think we will audition. I’m already planning to write a blog post about it.

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Posted in community theatre, humor, personal, theater and tagged audition, auditions, Ilion Little Theatre, Players of Utica, Utica. Bookmark the permalink.

Back on Stage?

Posted on November 19, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Ilion Little Theatre is moving right along with their 2014-15 season. Noises Off still has another weekend to run (Nov. 21, 22, 23; catch it if you get a chance!), but they are already holding auditions for their next production, Busybody.

My public will be pleased to know that I auditioned last night. OK, I guess my public mostly consists of my husband, Steven, and maybe my Mom and Dad. Steven thought it was cool I tried out. So did I.

The theatre is located in The Stables behind Remington Arms in Ilion, NY. It is a short drive from Herkimer, where I live. It was pouring rain and I was nervous. What if I’d forgotten how to act? Worse yet, given the weather, what if I’d forgotten how to drive? I managed to arrive safely, so I trusted I would be OK on stage.

The director greeted me and introduced himself. Very polite of him, since I’ve known him for five years, ever since I joined the theatre group. I filled out my audition sheet, pausing only when I got to the “experience” section, because I couldn’t seem to remember my character’s name in And Then There Were None (good God, I think that was before I started writing a blog. Did I even have a life back then?) (Note to self: answer that question on Lame Post Friday).

Another auditioner was looking at the script.

“This smells awesome,” he said. “It smells like elementary school.” I just love a good description like that. Ilion Little Theatre gets the coolest actors.

When I checked out the script myself, I was more worried about sight than smell. I had neglected to bring my reading glasses. My regular glasses are progressives, but I like a wider reading area, just to give myself every advantage.

It turned out pretty OK. I think I did all right on the scenes I read. It seems like a really fun play. I’m looking forward to reading the whole script. Or, you know, seeing the show, if I don’t get cast. I hope I get cast. I’ll write numerous blog posts about it if I do.

For more information on Ilion Little Theatre visit their website at www.ilionlittletheatre.org, and Like their Facebook page.

Mohawk Valley Girl