No, I did not return the next day to perform my monologue for the director as I was promised and assumed after not hearing from them for a few days that I would never again hear from them. But lo and behold I was instructed to return tonight, Saturday night, and be ready to go with Ferdinand from Act III, scene i.
I had done this once before, mind you, back in the ivied halls of Harvard. I had read this very same scene with one Reid Cottingham for one Molly Bishop for her grand thesis production of The Tempest. But back then it was not I who would go on to play the role of Ferdinand, but one of this year's Must See TV boys, Nestor Carbonele, from Suddenly Susan. Just think how different my life would be now if I had just played Ferdinand. Humph.
But all that had to be put behind me. It was time to make amends, finally turn my life around. I read the scene with a girl who was auditioning for Miranda. And before we quibble over whether it's OK to say "girl" or should I have said "woman," this young lady was driven to the audition by her mom because she does not have her license yet. And this girl turned in a fine if relatively uninteresting performance. But it didn't affect my stuff much because we were instructed to just sit there and deliver the lines.
My lines came out, for the most part, as I had planned (whether that's good or bad). I got a few laughs out of the gang of five evaluating us. I needed to rely on my text a little more than was maybe ideal, but again, since we were just sitting there, it wasn't as big as deal. They were nice and I left.