12 Jun 2001
I auditioned for GREASE the other day. I wasn’t expecting much. I just hoped that I would at least get cast in the chorus and have the chance to sing and dance (which I love to do).
But no. The cast list went up tonight and I was cast as Eugene, the “class valedictorian.” That’s right — the school nerd. As immortalized by Eddie Deezan in the film version.
I’m been running from the image of Eddie all my life. One of my favorite movies as a kid was Midnight Madness — I longed to be a member of the cool, regular-joe Yellow Team, but I knew people saw me as a member of the White Team, the moped-riding geeks. That’s the kind of guy I was as a kid and I hated every minute of it. I cringed everytime I saw a movie featuring Eddie being made fun of, because I saw myself and the way that I was treated by others.
But then I discovered theatre and things changed (a little, but enough). I got cast against type. When I acted, I was able to show my peers that I could actually do something that they thought was kind of cool and that I was kind of good at it. It was theatre that lifted me out of the depression of my adolescene and gave me the strength and courage to grow up and face the world.
I’m sure that Eddie is a nice guy in real life and he’s made a nice career for himself playing an easily-recognizable type, but I don’t want to be that guy again. I haven’t done any theatre in four years, and I miss it enormously. But I don’t know that I could go through all the psychic and emotional baggage that playing that role might dredge up.
Maybe I wouldn’t be so upset if I was getting the chance to sing and dance. But I don’t want to be that guy who dances awkwardly for a laugh, and Eugene is reportedly not a singing role (if nothing else, I found this great theatre role resource, stageagent.com).
Maybe I’m making too much of this. But I couldn’t bring myself to initial next to my name on the cast list. I’m probably going to call the director tomorrow and ask her if I can just be in the chorus. I’ve just got to figure out all this stuff going on in my head before the first rehearsal Wednesday night.
six degrees of dlevy:
Midnight Madness was written (and directed?) by David Wechter.
David Wechter co-wrote the original story that became The Faculty with Bruce Kimmel.
Bruce Kimmel employs dlevy.
dlevy | 13 Jun 2001