My Return to Community Theater After a Two Decade Hiatus

This summer I did something which I had not done in 21 years: I auditioned for a community theater musical! The last show I did was, as mentioned, 21 years ago. My husband was in the cast with me back then (we were already married), and we did not have any kids. Fast forward—my husband auditioned with me again. Although I had not performed in a few decades, my daughter is a “theater kid,” so I have been a proud, strong theater mom for nine years. I always loved watching her perform and I loved seeing the relationships she developed with others in the cast. This summer it was time for me to try to enjoy some musical theater in front of an audience. Ideally, my daughter would have auditioned as well, but she had some conflicts on her calendar that would have prevented her from participating in all of the performances. A few years prior, she and my husband performed together in a production of “Evita.” I would have to wait a bit longer.

The summer musical this year was “Footloose.” I admit that I had seen a production of this show elsewhere previously, and, honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed. Nevertheless, as a kid of the 80’s, I love the music and the movie (the Kevin Bacon version, of course), and this was the show being done in my community, so I decided to give it a go!

My first challenge was finding a song–not just picking one but also getting music since there would be an accompanist at the audition. I am an alto. For those of you to whom that means something, you probably just sighed and feel for me. For those who don’t know, it is much more difficult to find good alto songs than soprano ones. I had a few ideas but decided to check my local library for song books where I could have access to the music and lyrics. (I know bits and pieces of lots of show tunes, but I don’t necessarily know all the words to many songs.) I didn’t need to prepare an entire song, just 60 seconds. I found a good song to prepare: “100 Ways to Lose a Man” from “Wonderful Town”. The song has both sung and spoken words, so I hoped it would give me an opportunity to show my potential.

I must say, I sounded GREAT while practicing all by myself in my car! I think I sounded better there than in the shower. For some sad reason, I did not sound nearly as good at the audition. This was a bit of a personal let down. I wasn’t giving up! Historically, I have always been more of a dancer than a singer. The dance part of the audition was personally a bit frustrating, however. I came to the conclusion that as a 52-year-old, I don’t pick up choreography nearly as quickly as I did in my teens and twenties. (I was actually one of the featured dancers in that show 21 years prior.) I was hoping that the town of Bomont (the setting for “Footloose”) would at least need some adults to tell the teens that dancing is bad. (If that does not make sense to you, watch the movie… the Kevin Bacon one.)

Yay! Both my husband and I were cast in the show! We were given the opportunity to really stretch ourselves as performers—we were playing…a married couple! Specifically, we were cast as Wes and Lulu Warnicker (aunt and uncle of Ren)(once again, if this goes over your head, see the movie, the Kevin Bacon version). Most of the cast was a lot younger than us, teens and 20’s, but there were some other “full fledged” adults in the cast. I knew many cast members because of my daughter’s previous shows, but I was looking forward to connecting with the cast as a fellow cast mate.

Throughout the summer, rehearsals put me on an emotional roller coaster for various reasons. Let me preface this, though, by saying that all of the staff involved with the show were absolutely fantastic! The cast members were extremely talented and kind. My issues were those I put upon myself. At times I was extremely glad that I was part of the show. At other times, I honestly wondered why I was even bothering to do it. (Spoiler alert: When all was said and done, I am so glad that I stayed with the show and hope to audition again next summer!)

Let’s start with music rehearsals. I often felt like I was in so far over my head! As mentioned earlier, I am an alto. If you don’t know, altos rarely sing melody. When the music director would play the alto part, I could sing it. As soon as the others (ie sopranos, tenors, basses) joined in, I could not find my note. I probably sang a combination of everyone’s notes initially (I REALLY hope that by the performances I was actually singing my part). Many of the other cast members have a lot of music experience. If they were told that their note was “G”, for example, they knew what to sing. I don’t know what a G sounds like! I have enough music experience that I could identify notes in the printed music and know how long to hold a note, but I have no clue how different notes are supposed to sound if I don’t hear them. I was getting so frustrated with myself. Once I would get home, I would try to remind myself that it is good to be challenged. This will benefit me in the long run. I will “get it” (I think I did in the end). On top of that, I didn’t sing the main parts of most of the songs. (As an 80’s kid, I was familiar with much of the “Footloose” movie soundtrack. In this show, I didn’t actually sing any of those songs except for about 30 seconds in the finale.) I had not done a show in 21 years, so I should give myself a break. Through all of this, I became even more impressed by the other performers as I had seen a lot of them perform with my daughter in the past. Now I better understood what they did and accomplished to create such amazing shows. As I wrote earlier, I have been a theater mom for nine years. My daughter started when she was in the third grade, so I have seen A LOT of shows (some with adults but most with only kids) with a ton of talent. I will gladly and honestly say that I am a little more optimistic about the future now that I am more aware of what kids can truly accomplish when they put in the time and effort!

I love to dance. When it comes to musical theater, the dance part is “my thing.” Unfortunately for me, though, adults did not dance much in this show. It wasn’t that the director and choreographer didn’t think the adults could do it. It simply didn’t make sense for most of the show. (This setting of the show was a town that made dancing illegal. It took a teenager who moved from Chicago to turn that around. The town adults were very anti-dance.) There were some scenes where I really hoped that I might have been able to dance, but, alas, it didn’t happen. I was really hoping to get some additional exercise and dance practice as well. Despite being a dance heavy show, it was not dance heavy for me.

One negative for the show that turned into a huge positive (at least for me) is that one of the women originally cast in the show to play two smaller roles decided not to participate. Her roles were divvied up between the other adult female member (who had a smaller role like me) and myself. The director seamlessly incorporated those characters into our current characters as opposed to us playing several roles. I feel that this extra “stuff” really added to my character and made her more interesting and a lot more fun for me to portray. These new lines were definitely my personal favorites among my lines. The director and producer were a little nervous about this initially—this additional role involved performing on roller skates. I think they were relieved when I told them that, yes, I can roller skate! I was a teen in the 80’s. Didn’t we all roller skate back then? My scene on roller skates was DEFINITELY my favorite one on stage. Yes, I love performing with my husband, but nevertheless, the roller skate scene of which he was not a part, was still my favorite scene to perform in the show. (For anyone with some familiarity with the show, this extra part was “Betty Blast,” owner of the local burger joint. For this specific production, Lulu became the owner of the burger joint.) I did get a kick out of the fact that both the kids and adults in the show and audience seemed truly impressed that I, a silver-haired (silver sounds SO much better than gray) woman who was literally the age of many of the kids’ moms, could comfortably and happily roller skate around the stage and backstage.

When I auditioned, I was really hoping for the chance to bond with the other cast members. This was something I loved to witness when my daughter performed, and I wanted to experience that again as well. This bonding didn’t really happen for me until later in the summer. The big turning point was when the “over 30” crowd got together for pizza in my backyard after our first tech rehearsal on a Saturday. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to make it that night, but five of us (plus an additional spouse) just hung out and FINALLY got to know each other better. I truly felt such a closer connection to them after that night. It made ALL the difference. I finally felt like I was part of a theater family, and we all know the importance and value of family. During the rest of the week, I really started to feel like a part of the cast as a whole. I got to know some of the others cast members better, and I was reminded in part of why I chose to do this in the first place.

The performances were great! Although I would have rather been on stage than in the wings for several of the numbers, I enjoyed myself. There were plenty of times when those of us in the wings would be dancing to the music waiting for our turn to go on stage. Little things like helping each other with microphones or with costumes really helped me feel like part of the theater family. We bonded during the show. I loved going out with the cast after the opening night show. I was hanging out with friends, not just cast mates. Sadly, due to too many cases of COVID among the cast and crew, the second weekend of performances had to be canceled. No one was to blame; it just turned out that way.

I had mixed emotions all summer when doing this show, but I have NO regrets. I am still in awe of the talent and kindness of everyone involved in the show–production staff, crew, and performers. Imposter syndrome was in FULL FORCE for a majority of the rehearsals (until I wore those roller skates). I had to remind myself that the times when I felt like I was in way over my head were times that would push me to learn and be better. We grow when challenged, not when comfortable. (Granted, if someone told me today to sing a “B,” I could point it out on sheet music but still couldn’t sing the actual note unless I made a really really lucky guess.) I wanted to dance more, but, it just wasn’t meant to be for this show. Despite having a harder time than I expected learning my few lines, I did it, and I think I performed them well. I even got a laugh at one point for something I did which felt GREAT! (I did wear a mask when performing, but I still managed to keep a straight face behind it which is not always easy for me.) I did not develop close bonds with the entire cast (most were much closer in age to my kids than myself), but I truly feel like I connected with some of the performers and believe I can call them friends. I got to spend a lot of my evenings with my husband doing something that did not involve a screen or housework. At home, he helped me with the music; I helped him with the choreography (the little we had). We did something special TOGETHER over the summer. I do plan to audition for next summer’s show even though no one yet knows what it will be. Fingers crossed that my husband AND daughter will audition. (My son will cheer loudly from the audience, especially since he missed this show because his ticket was for the COVID canceled weekend). I hope to sing and dance more. I will need to remember to give myself a break and to not give up. Hopefully I will improve with each opportunity and continue to grow as both a performer and a person.

If anyone asks if I did anything interesting over the summer, I can proudly say, “Yes! I was in a musical!” Then, I will gladly talk about it with a big smile. Everybody CUT LOOSE!