Mission: Shakespeare Festival/LA is dedicated to nurturing a tradition of professional, public theater of the highest caliber that is accessible to all. That's the bottom line. What that has produced for the last twelve summers is a Shakespeare play well-attended (for a canned food donation) and well-reviewed (by the Times and even Daily Variety). As they put it: these are free, union-contracted, professional performances of Shakespeare's plays.
I decided to take my King John monologue out of its mothballs. I had only used it once before, when I auditioned for Theater 40. It's track record is 0-for-1. But this time it would not be accompanied by the dating/working monologue. It would be able to fly on its own. Or crash, depending on the outing.
I performed it for Ben and Frank, two of the Shakespeare lackeys, I guess, the front lines of the auditioning process. Ben seemed to be in charge so I performed it to him. He was kind enough to look at me the whole time. That was cool. And it came out smoothly, no noticeable gaffs, and it's not a very well-known speech so they couldn't catch the smaller, private gaffs. I am to return tomorrow to perform it for the director.