Theater Tryouts

Cec and I went to tryouts for "The Cemetery Club" at the Huntsville Community Theater last Tuesday evening.  I went to volunteer to help behind the scenes, but Cec decided to read for a part.  

I tell people that my only stage experience was in a first grade program in which I portrayed a fireman and did a short recital, which is not entirely accurate.  There was the time I subbed for Dan Rather in a comedy skit.  Yes, Kenneth, I do have the frequency. It was the real Dan Rather.

When I was in law school at the University of Texas, I wrote a skit for a student-produced musical revue called Assault and Flattery. The skit was based on CBS Evening News and starred an anchorman named Dan Either.  When we were rehearsing, I read in the Austin paper that the real Dan Rather was to be in Austin for a speech the weekend of the performance.  His brother was a high school football coach at an Austin high school at the time.  Hmm, I thought, why couldn't Dan Rather play Dan Either.  Since he had once been a law student at the University of Houston, he might just be willing to do it.  We had a history in Assault and Flattery of inviting local celebrities like outrageous car or furniture salesmen ("I want to sell YOU a car!" and "You don't need money--just a little bit a month!") to appear in the program as surprise guests.  Dan Rather would be real coup.

So with a Law School dean's permission (long distance calls were expensive in those days) I boldly called CBS News in Washington and asked to speak to Dan Rather.   It was amazingly easy to contact him.  After being transferred only a couple of times, I heard someone say, "This is Dan Rather."  Wow, me a nobody law student was talking to a big star!  He was very cordial and said he'd be happy to do the part but that a breaking news story would keep him from traveling to Austin.  So you guessed it.  I had to step in as his substitute and play the part myself.

Cec's only previous acting experience was as lead in a high school play.  She says she got the lead because no one else was willing to play an older person.  In the middle of the play during a complex movement sequence, either she or another actor turned the wrong way and they collided.  Suddenly everything went quiet.  Thinking quickly, Cec reached for the other actor said "You must be Aunt So-and-so.  I forgot my glasses."  That saved the scene, and the director quickly punched the lenses out of a pair of sunglasses for Cec to wear in a subsequent scene. The play was a big hit, and everyone remarked how real the collision scene seemed.

Anyway, I was very proud of Cec's performance at the tryout. She really did a great job, and one scene in which she knelt and spoke at the grave of her dead husband was really moving, eliciting spontaneous applause from the other aspiring actors.   We did not see Monday night's truouts, but I thought that Cec was one of the best on Tuesday.The producer for the play (the director in charge of casting was a Sam Houston State senior student) was sitting in front of me, and she was shaking her head "yes" and making approving hand signals as Cec said her lines.  Now, Cec was not perfect, of course, and one would expect reading an unknown play cold, and several of the others clearly had had more acting experience.  However, I thought they overplayed their parts while Cec sounded natural.  (I define acting doing something unnaturally in a way that seems natural).  On the way out of the theater, several of the others stopped by and complimented her. 

Ultimately, Cec did not get a part, but I think she made a very good impression. I predict that she will be in a play in the near future, and I think we will have a lot of fun with the Theater.