Several weeks back my wife pointed out an ad in the paper to me. It was a local community theater holding auditions for a musical; "The Pirates of Penzance"
I'd done an adaptation of Pirates my senior year of high school and played the lead role - Frederick - a young, self-proclaimed "slave of duty" who represents the male love interest throughout the play. Frederick is pure, innocent to the point of naivete, and valiant to a fault; not a hard character for me to portray despite my limited talent as an actor. The part of Frederick is written for a tenor in a show that is about 90% music and I do consider myself to be a very strong singer. In short, I knew I'd have pretty good chances of landing the lead again.
Having learned about the auditions on such short notice, I went the next day to pick up an audition packet and had the night to look over it before the last day of auditions. After looking over the materials, I could tell that the director anticipated a cast largely composed of students from the high school. There was, for instance, a line of questions centered around school sports and other activities that might conflict with rehearsals. I considered the possibility that this production was to be, in effect, a school play with a few adults added. I figured that my audition would either impress them so much that they would virtually give me the part on the spot, or they would have had some young high-school guy in mind already and would persuade me to take on another role.
It turns out that the former was true. After my audition, the director pulled me aside and praised me for a great audition. She asked if I would feel uncomfortable playing Frederick opposite a much younger girl as Mabel. It turns out the director's 15-year-old daughter was the one favored for the part of Mabel - the female love interest. I had considered the possibility beforehand, and so I told her rather cautiously that I would be able to handle doing that. She assured me that this girl, though young, was very mature for her age, and that she planned to tone down the romantic scenes.
To some it may not seem like such a big deal, but I have legitimate concerns in a situation like this. For one thing, my background is in Education, and although I'm not currently teaching, there's a strong possibility that I may get back into teaching again in this area. If anyone of importance was even convinced that I might be acting inappropriately towards a girl this age, it could severely hurt my chances of teaching again, at least anywhere nearby. I don't see how anyone could convince themselves of that, but sometimes it can really surprise one to see how people can get the wrong idea - unable to separate the stage from real life.
Those kind of concerns aren't so much of an issue for me in this case. I trust that people involved with the show would not allow for such rumors to be spread about me. They may be amateurs, but they know how to be professional in that sense.
Still, after a few weeks of rehearsal, it's not hard to see that there is definitely some awkwardness when it comes to the scenes with Frederick and Mabel. This girl and I have barely shared a bit of conversation, but we both have our reasons. It would be a social debacle for either of us to act more than minimally amiable to one another while not in character. After all, in "real life" we would probably ignore each other as much as possible anyway, if only because of the difference in our age. Neither one of us wants to consider the thought that there could be attraction between us on either end. Neither one of us wants other people suggesting that either, even if it's in a "joking" way. Another factor may be that she and many of her friends at school have my mother as a teacher - so even being friends with me becomes that much more weird. Add in the fact that we're both rather quiet, introverted people by nature and you can see why there is a lot of ice to break between us.
I'm sure that having her mom as the director doesn't make it much easier for her either. I can say that it makes things easier for me, though, since I know I'm not going to be asked to do anything with her that would make her (or at least her mom) feel uncomfortable.
I wouldn't care so much, but it has, at least so far, made acting alongside her a bit difficult. I can tell that it's not coming very easily for her either. I'm just thankful that she doesn't act entirely disgusted by the idea of having to play Mabel to my Frederick.
So the question lingers: how can I help to overcome the awkwardness between us without much risk of icreasing it?
I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
I'd done an adaptation of Pirates my senior year of high school and played the lead role - Frederick - a young, self-proclaimed "slave of duty" who represents the male love interest throughout the play. Frederick is pure, innocent to the point of naivete, and valiant to a fault; not a hard character for me to portray despite my limited talent as an actor. The part of Frederick is written for a tenor in a show that is about 90% music and I do consider myself to be a very strong singer. In short, I knew I'd have pretty good chances of landing the lead again.
Having learned about the auditions on such short notice, I went the next day to pick up an audition packet and had the night to look over it before the last day of auditions. After looking over the materials, I could tell that the director anticipated a cast largely composed of students from the high school. There was, for instance, a line of questions centered around school sports and other activities that might conflict with rehearsals. I considered the possibility that this production was to be, in effect, a school play with a few adults added. I figured that my audition would either impress them so much that they would virtually give me the part on the spot, or they would have had some young high-school guy in mind already and would persuade me to take on another role.
It turns out that the former was true. After my audition, the director pulled me aside and praised me for a great audition. She asked if I would feel uncomfortable playing Frederick opposite a much younger girl as Mabel. It turns out the director's 15-year-old daughter was the one favored for the part of Mabel - the female love interest. I had considered the possibility beforehand, and so I told her rather cautiously that I would be able to handle doing that. She assured me that this girl, though young, was very mature for her age, and that she planned to tone down the romantic scenes.
To some it may not seem like such a big deal, but I have legitimate concerns in a situation like this. For one thing, my background is in Education, and although I'm not currently teaching, there's a strong possibility that I may get back into teaching again in this area. If anyone of importance was even convinced that I might be acting inappropriately towards a girl this age, it could severely hurt my chances of teaching again, at least anywhere nearby. I don't see how anyone could convince themselves of that, but sometimes it can really surprise one to see how people can get the wrong idea - unable to separate the stage from real life.
Those kind of concerns aren't so much of an issue for me in this case. I trust that people involved with the show would not allow for such rumors to be spread about me. They may be amateurs, but they know how to be professional in that sense.
Still, after a few weeks of rehearsal, it's not hard to see that there is definitely some awkwardness when it comes to the scenes with Frederick and Mabel. This girl and I have barely shared a bit of conversation, but we both have our reasons. It would be a social debacle for either of us to act more than minimally amiable to one another while not in character. After all, in "real life" we would probably ignore each other as much as possible anyway, if only because of the difference in our age. Neither one of us wants to consider the thought that there could be attraction between us on either end. Neither one of us wants other people suggesting that either, even if it's in a "joking" way. Another factor may be that she and many of her friends at school have my mother as a teacher - so even being friends with me becomes that much more weird. Add in the fact that we're both rather quiet, introverted people by nature and you can see why there is a lot of ice to break between us.
I'm sure that having her mom as the director doesn't make it much easier for her either. I can say that it makes things easier for me, though, since I know I'm not going to be asked to do anything with her that would make her (or at least her mom) feel uncomfortable.
I wouldn't care so much, but it has, at least so far, made acting alongside her a bit difficult. I can tell that it's not coming very easily for her either. I'm just thankful that she doesn't act entirely disgusted by the idea of having to play Mabel to my Frederick.
So the question lingers: how can I help to overcome the awkwardness between us without much risk of icreasing it?
I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
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