April 28, 1997
The road to this showcase was not straight and smooth by any means. I joined up with this ragtag troupe back in February and signed on for an April 16th performance date. Then fate stepped in and my trip to Waukegan to see the grandparents conflicted and I dropped out. A few weeks ago, however, with the date changed, I was contacted again to return and fill a spot recently vacated by another actor. The scene would be "Sure Thing," which I had done at the last showcase, so my investment of time would not have to be as great with the showcase fast approaching. I said yes.
Then, of course, I went to Waukegan and my scene partner went to South Carolina, leaving us all of one weekend to put it together. We met Friday and Saturday, ran lines Sunday, and then during the day Monday before the showcase. We were both quite familiar with the scene, so all this process had to accomplish was making us familiar with each other and maybe we could find something interesting funny things to do. Those rehearsals went very well, and the scene came along nicely.
The show was well-attended numbers-wise. In the 100 or so seats sat about 80 butts. They were very responsive and the scene was a big hit. The little stuff we added went over well, from a bell-crazy dance break to a menage a trois reference. They laughed and laughed (which is what always seems to happen at auditions right before nobody hires me).
The aftermath is still evolving, but immediately following the show, I was approached by three professional entities:
A woman inquired whether or not I had commercial representation. I
turned and introduced her to my commercial agents who were standing
with me at the time.
A few days after the aforementioned showcase, I received a call from Traci and Winston, the showcase coordinators, and due to the tremendous response to the showcase on its first run, we will be remounting the entire event in two weeks, Monday, May 12. Here we go again...