The Boards, Wednesday Evening - Auditions!

[furnaceface]

It seemed like damn near forever since Jonothon had held one of these. That was, yes, in part because the Boards hadn't done anything through the summer. It was also because, with Glacia moving at double Fandom's pace, summer had been a long ordeal that had involve a good portion of winter, too.

Either way, it felt good to finally be holding these again.

Auditions Today and Sunday!
Jekyll & Hyde
Bring a Monologue and a Song
Rehearsals on Wednesdays and Sundays, Performance Friday, Nov. 29
Cast and Crew Wanted!

And yes, Jono had put out pastries and lemon water and tea for anyone who came to audition, as well. It hadn't been so long that he'd forgotten that much.

[Open auditions are open to all!]

Comments

Arrive/Mingle!

[furnaceface]

Lemon water, tea, pastries, mingling. You know the score!

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Jono had known she was going to show up, right? Because if he didn't, then Karina was severely over-estimating him.

She took water but didn't touch the food. Who ate things before trying out? Ah well, whatever, it was nice of him to include it. Maybe she'd grab a pastry on the way out.

Audition!

[furnaceface]

It's easy. Just get up onto the stage, introduce yourself, and then perform your monologue and your song.

Remember, the more you act it up, the more Jono has to work with while casting you! Be descriptive thorough expressive!

Re: Audition!

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Water gone, Karina hopped up onto the stage confidently.

"Hi," she said, grinning a bit. "I'm Karina Lyle," which she hoped he knew this time around, "and I've got Neva's monologue from Another Paradise."

Re: Audition!

[furnaceface]

"Hello, Karina," Jono greeted, smiling faintly. "Good to see you here again."

And prepared! With a monologue all picked out! That made his job easier, which he always appreciated.

"You can get started whenever you're ready, luv."

Re: Audition!

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Of course she was prepared! Like she wouldn't be.

Karina nodded, took a breath, holding it for a few seconds, and then let it out, drawing up her shoulders and carrying herself like she was a Lady with a capital 'L'.

When she spoke, it was with a very fine genteel Southern accent, which was pretty far off from how she usually spoke.

"You see, Ma, it wasn't that I didn't love you. Daddy, too. But I wanted us to be acceptable, Ma." She reached her hands out, like she was talking to her mother and pleading for her to listen, her face open and earnest. "And we weren't." She sighed, turning away and looking down, clasping her hands at her front. "I wanted us to be middle class. Educated. I wasn't ever going to be laughed at again."

Karina spun, taking a step forward, and asked, "Did you know I was laughed at, Ma?"

She let shoulder slump as she continued implacably on. "First for my poverty, then for my accent when I went to college." Karina gave a short, sharp laugh. "Oh, yes, we all had accents, Ma, but I sounded like poor country folk." Karina took a breath and admitted painfully, "Which we were. My words were different. And if I hadn't been so goddamned beautiful, Ma, and so smart, I never would have been accepted."

With a shake of her head, Karina took a few steps to the side. "And still it wasn't easy. When I married Aaron, I said it made no difference that he was Jewish." She dropped her voice to a near whisper, ashamed, as she said, "But it did, Ma."

Her shoulders straightened then, as she steeled herself and looked determined. "I did what I had to do. I made you rich, elegant." She gestured at the stage around them, like they were in an elegant home, and then continued on, a bit of shame creeping into her voice, "I said Daddy was educated. I know you think he was, and I suppose compared to you he seemed so, but he wasn't really, Ma." The apology was in the tone of her voice. Karina smiled, the expression pinched. "Oh, the world is not an easy place; you have to fight to live in it. And it wasn't pure invention, just exaggeration... a little distortion here and there. But," her voice became fierce, "I always loved you."

She nodded, once, like she was listening to something, then said solemnly, "I will never mention this again, Ma. I will tell our story the way it should have been, the way it is. I will set you free."

Karina walked in a wide curve, her expression softening, and the hardness in her eyes sliding away. When she spoke next, her voice seemed younger, having lost some of its polish. "There's something I've been wanting to tell you, Ma. A dream I keep having, and it's so strange." She gazed out over the seats where the audience would sit. "You see, in this dream I'm all alone on a summer's night, and there are little breezes blowing around me. I hear crickets and smell honeysuckle drifting in the moonlight. My hair is silky, and I feel it on my shoulders. And then..."

She laughed, a note of apology in it, then carries on, slightly embarrassed, "...I realize I'm naked and standing on a barn roof." Karina lifted her hands up, as if to say 'well, that's what I dreamed' and then let them fall. "Well, there's no one around to see me, but I feel so lovely I wouldn't care anyway. I move around a little, but I'm very careful not to fall off. And then..." Her voice went dreamy. "I look up, and I see you, Ma, dancing in the clouds. You look so beautiful, Ma."

With her hands she reached out, trying to catch someone. "I... I call: Ma! But you don't seem to hear me, so I reach up to you, and I... I force myself to rise up, up to where you're having such a good time, because I want to dance with you, but..." Tears filled her voice, making the last words choked and despairing. "…before I can get there, I always wake up."

Karina let her hands fall, and held her silence for a moment, still gazing yearningly into the distance.

Re: Audition!

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

Jono was prepared for Minako, right? Right. By now he should totally know to expect Minako.

Which meant a blur of blonde hair practically exploding on to the stage before she managed to screech to a halt, bouncing in place. "Hiiiiiiiiii, Starsmore-sensei! Minako Aino here, with a monologue from meta for Stardust!"

Re: Audition!

[furnaceface]

See how completely unsurprised Jonothon was to see Minako here? But then, her enthusiasm was always refreshing, so...

"Good to see you again, Minako," he said, giving her a small smile and a nod. "From meta for Stardust, hm? I've only ever read the book, back in my library days."

Once upon a time.

He spread his hands and gave her another nod.

"Go ahead, whenever you're ready, then, luv."

Re: Audition!

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

"Hai!" she cheered, giving him a sharp, short bow. As she straightened up again, a shift came over her features, something heartbroken and ancient, a look that would normally be completely alien on Minako's cheerful features.

"You know when I said I knew little about love?" she asked, her voice catching slightly. "That wasn’t true. I know a lot about love. I’ve seen it, centuries and centuries of it," and she was tired, so tired, those centuries wearing on her mortal soul. "and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars..." she spat, disgust twisting on her lips. "Pain, lies, hate... It made me want to turn away and never look down again!"

"But when I see the way that mankind loves..." Minako sighed, closing her eyes as her face lifted up towards the ceiling. "You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful."

"So yes, I know that love is 'unconditional,'" - and you could hear the airquotes around the word. "But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, and... What I’m trying to say, Tristan is...I think I love you." Minako opened her eyes and looked at Jono, looking lost. "Is this love, Tristan? I never imagined I'd know it for myself. My heart... It feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it’s trying to escape because it doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I’d wish for nothing in exchange...no gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just... your heart, in exchange for mine."

She let the silence hang in the air for a moment, before shifting back to her starting position and bowing again. "Arigato!"

Re: Audition!

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Someone had missed the part about needing a song prepared and that someone was Zhahar. She'd heard one the radio that the Boards was having auditions tonight, but if it had been mentioned that it was for a musical, she hadn't heard that bit.

"...There are no speaking roles?" she asked, a little desperately.

Re: Audition!

[furnaceface]

"None that don't also involve singing, I'm afraid," Jono replied, frowning apologetically. "If you're that uncomfortable, we could tuck you away in what more or less amounts to a chorus, but the number of roles available to you would be limited, at best."

Re: Audition!

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"But I can't sing!" Zhahar said desperately. "You don't understand. Can't! Bad! Fail!"

Inside, Zeela was cackling. =S'what you get for threatening to lie to Caius.=

Re: Audition!

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy was here, on a bit of a dare from her mother. And you know? She kind of enjoyed singing when no one was making her, and she liked Jono and well... what else was she doing.

"I have a monologue called 'Cinderella's Ugly Stepsister'. Or if you'd rather have me do my song first. It's "At Seventeen" by Janis Ian. She had sheets with guitar music for it if he needed it.

Re: Audition!

[furnaceface]

Honestly, if Jono needed sheet music for the classics like that, he'd be horribly ashamed of himself.

"You can start with either," he replied, smiling faintly. "Have you got any preference, luv?"

Re: Audition!

[walkswithcoyote]

"Monologue first," Mercy said after a moment. "I'm more confident about my singing, so I'd rather do the other first."

She hesitated, making sure she had it set in her head, then started.

"It isn't easy being the ugly stepsister. Everybody always feels so sorry for poor little Cinderella, but what about me? I deserve a little sympathy, too. Does MY fairy godmother ever turn up with a magic wand? Does the prince ever dance with me at the ball? Not on your life."

Her nerves showed through, but she had more than a little experience with being the odd man out and was able to do a good mimic of one of her stepsister's aggravated half-pout when she wasn't getting her way.

Mercy took a breath and moved out of the pout into a bit of an eye-roll and that dogged determination her other step-sister always used when she was trying to convince people why she should have her own way. "If you ask me, that Cinderella is weird. Certainly, she isn't normal. Besides the fact that she has naturally curly hair and wears size 4 1/2 shoes, she is so good-natured that it's downright sickening. If you had to dust and sweep and clean all day long, would you go around singing to the birds? Of course you wouldn't, no sensible person would."

And now she was getting the hang of it a bit, more confident as she neared the end adding in gestures toward her face and hair as she talked of the beauty treatments and putting her arms out to yell to the prince.

"Some people think I'm jealous of her. Maybe I am, but with good reason. I subsisted on seven hundred calories a day for three whole weeks before the ball. I got a perm and a facial and a manicure. I even bought a new gown, blue velvet, designer label. I mean, I was READY. "PRINCEY," I thought to myself, "HERE I COME!""


"And what happens? Little Cindy, who has never seen the inside of a health club before in her life and who doesn't know the caloric difference between a carrot stick and a chocolate eclair, whips together a dress out of some old curtains from K-Mart, waltzes off to the ball and snags the prince.

It isn't fair! It really isn't fair!"

She finished hands on hips with a dramatic (if quiet) pout, held it for a moment, then blushed and ducked her head a bit.

Talk to the Director...s?

[furnaceface]

Jono finally sucked it up and asked (or, well, voluntold) someone to help him pull this thing off. His own singing voice is a little rough these days. The extra help will go a long way.

When they tag in!

Re: Talk to the Director...s?

[furnaceface]

Jono was not a tea person, no. But Jono was drinking tea all the same, in the hopes that it would soothe his throat enough to help him coach anyone who needed singing help, if only a little bit.

... Barring that, there was his guitar, yes. But... singing voice!

Re: Talk to the Director...s?

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

The smell of chai with whipped cream and cinnamon couldn't hurt, could it?

"What kind of people have we got so far?" Kenzi asked, perching on the seat-back next to Jono, and waving his new cup near him. She was slurping a salted caramel mochachino and she was not going to share.

Re: Talk to the Director...s?

[furnaceface]

"Girls," Jonothon reported. "Two who are definite show... women. One who'll give it her all and do a good job of it, I'm sure. And one who isn't actually capable of hearing pitch, who'll likely get relegated to a bit part, unfortunately."

He felt badly about that. Being unable to hear was no fault of Zhahar's, but it was going to hurt her chances of landing a worthwhile role all the same.

Maybe making grabby-hands for the cup of chai would help ease that guilt some.

Re: Talk to the Director...s?

[bluhblahbluh.livejournal.com]

"WHEN DID ANYONE LAST CLEAN HERE?"

Sorry Jono. To be fair? It was the rafters, he was talking about.

Drac fluttered down from the rafters and transformed back into his human self.

"The acoustics will be abominable. And I am not referring to Alistair, the Yeti with the Golden Voice." Drac tucked his hands behind him, beneath his cape. "Hmm. I wonder if I could get him to visit for a day or two as a voice coach...?"

Re: Talk to the Director...s?

[furnaceface]

"That'd be my failing, I'm afraid," Jono replied, frowning up toward the rafters. "I've fallen a touch behind on my housekeeping since going off to war. Cleaning the catwalks was significantly easier to manage back when I could stay aloft for more than a few moments at a time."

He was still working on that.

"... All the help we can get, I'll take," he added. "It so happens that our first weekend rehearsal will coincide with the weekend reserved for visitors from off-island to stop by for a few days..."

Re: Talk to the Director...s?

[bluhblahbluh.livejournal.com]

"Visitors?" Drac raised an eyebrow at Jono. Maybe he would invite the boys for a small get-a-way... Drac shook his head and smiled.

"Directors and owners don't clean. It's not your job. I will have it done." Probably by zombies. Apparently witches didn't do housekeeping, here, he'd been told.

Drac looked towards the rest of the stage. "So how will this go? I've only auditioned groupies."

OOC!

[furnaceface]

On my list of things to do this morning that includes rearranging furniture and going to work, this one came in top priority.

Going back to bed comes in second, but I can't do that one.

Please, be descriptive with your character's performance of their monologue, so that I know what sort of job they actually did up there. Preference will be given to people who give more for me to work with, so it can't hurt to go through and show how your character acts out the whole thing.

If you don't have a monologue handy, poke me here OOCly or just have your character ask Jono ICly, and one will be chucked at you at random.

Have fun!

Re: OOC!

[bluhblahbluh.livejournal.com]

Sooo sorry I'm late! I will ping any who want me to!

This week can be over now?

Re: OOC!

[furnaceface]

No worries! There's always Sunday!