"Ma (He's Making Eyes At Me)"

This song was very fun to sing, and I kept thinking, If I had sung this well in high school, I might have even gotten a real part in one of those musicals, instead of being a muchkin, or a lady in waiting, or a nun. Life would have been very different.

I did audition for pretty much every show that my high school put on, which was quite a few. We even had a drama department--albeit only one teacher--and three or four shows were put on each year, culminating in the spring musical. The other shows were not musicals, I remember the January shows were a series of one act plays, and the fall production was a drama of some kind.

When I was a senior I finally got into a show other than the musical (possibly pity casting, though I did know that my auditioning skills were improving, at least): the stage production of 'Inherit The Wind', in which I played the wife of the lead, and got to scream dramatically. I also made my costume, a semi-period black taffeta suit. (After the production I shortened the skirt considerably.)

In college I took the acting major's set of acting courses as far as I could, as a non-major. A lot of the exercises were incredibly fun to do. I never got very good, though I did do a couple community theatre productions after college, and I always imagine that I'll try to go back to that at some point.

I'm thinking about acting a bit lately as I work on 'selling' a song. What am I selling? Who am I selling it to? Who am I? I've been running these scenarios through in my head: bored socialite, slutty cowgirl, young innocent, competent callgirl. Costumes, makeup, props, it's all there, in the virtual sense. I don't have any idea, though, if my inner stage will transfer to the outer world, if I could create the desire in real life that my imaginary audience feels in my head. It does feel like a part of me that is very little stretched, though, and that alone makes it worth the effort.