Teacher Diaries: Auditioning for Mary Poppins
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Recently, one of my good friends, C, pushed me to audition for the staff arts production of Mary Poppins the Broadway Musical. My thought process regarding this decision was this: if I get a part, I will be kept busy at least 2-3 times a week, for 3-4 hours at a time. On top of this reality, I will finally be getting back into doing something that I used to get a lot joy from: singing and acting.
C and I have been teaching for the same amount of time (nearly three years) at the school that we work at, and have always been aware that our school board puts on a major production featuring staff, each year. However, it was not until this year that we felt comfortable enough to put ourselves out there and audition.
Up until the day of our auditions, both she and I were balking at the reality of what we were about to do. Although seasoned performers (C more so than me since she actually has a Bachelor of Fine Arts for vocal music), we were nervous that we hadn't prepared enough and that we were about to make fools out of ourselves. It took all day to work up the courage and say to each other: "Okay... so, we are doing this. We are really doing this. We are going to audition!" We went in with the mindset that it didn't matter whether or not we bombed the audition (we were convinced that we were going to fail miserably); what mattered is that we were doing it together and facing our fears.
She and I had our auditions back to back. Although I cannot speak for how her audition went (she rocked it, I'm sure since she was offered a part!), I can however speak for myself, and I think it went horribly. I was a ball of nerves. I was so nervous that I was shaking uncontrollably, I felt like vomiting, and my legs weren't strong enough to support me. When I was finally called in to sing and present some lines from the broadway musical in front of the panel, it took me a good minute or two to compose myself. I sang my entire song with my eyes closed, had a few errant notes, and totally jumped the gun on my cue for the final line of the song (I sang "Reflection" from Disney's Mulan). My delivery of the lines for the character of Mary Poppins fell short of the mark, and because I actually cannot read sheet music, singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from the music sheets they provided also did not go over very well. The panel was very kind and gracious with their comments about my singing however, and for some very odd, and miraculous reason... they offered me a part!
I will be taking on the role of Mrs. Corry, the owner of the shop where Mary Poppins takes Michael and Jane Banks to buy "an ounce of conversation", a scene that also contains the featured song that I had to sing during my audition. I can't wait for our first read-through in February and all the hard, but fun and rewarding work that's to come!
Here's to facing my fears, and succeeding!
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