#14: How can you get so far off the track?
THURSDAY
7/18/24
My birthday is on Saturday. While I’m not a birthday girlie, I’m also NOT trying to pretend it doesn’t happen. Birthdays are fine, they happen regardless of acknowledgement. I’m happy to go out to dinner or see a show… but I don’t want to plan it haha. Which, of course, is something you have to do as an adult. I do like to reflect a bit though… so here we go.
Let’s just start here: The last show I was in closed on 7/16/23.
TWENTY-TWENTYTHREE. It’s been a full year since I was in a musical. That is truly a shocking this to say out loud. And even though that show was a life altering experience for me personally (emotionally i should say), I actually didn’t even sing in it. The last time I sang a solo song in a musical was in June of 2022. I did do Xanadu in Sept of 2022 and then The Spitfire Grill in November of 2022 but that was mostly duet and group numbers for me.
I did a few concerts and of course my own solo show at SOPAC in January of 2023. But that is just not the same. I haven’t rehearsed a musical in over a year and that to me is absolutely crazy.
Based on “facebook memories” it would appear that I’ve been in at least 1 show every single summer (June- early September) since like 2011? And before that probably every year from 1988 til 2008? (Those summers from 2008-2011 I lived my best retail life and did some traveling)
So it is safe to say that probably 75% of my summers have been spent doing theatre.
A million thoughts run through my head:
Is it because my voice has changed a bit and i’m navigating a new sound?
My auditions seem strong and I get callbacks? I’m always strong in a callback…
Now, I am definitely competing for roles, even at small regional houses, against people with 5, 6, 7+ broadway shows…
Is it because I joined the union? Idk, theatres seem to always find a union contract for their friends or wives lol.
I do look at a lot of my friends working non-eq and I’m like “oh that role in that show they are in would be me”. But I have to pause all of that because…
It’s not up to me.
Usually I am SO GOOD about this. I’m able to leave and audition and in a week if you ask me what I went to, i can’t tell you. I quite literally do not remember. So, it’s not that I do not have my brain completely wrapped around this. But I do want to crack the code and see what happens when I try something new.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be thinking through a strategic plan to implement going into the fall. There will be a bump in auditions in early fall and I’ll see if my strategy will work. As soon as I have it fleshed out I let you know and tell you what it is.
Sometimes things change without clear cause. I can’t control everything, but I’m sure if I dig deep enough I’ll find an answer and do my best to change it. I’ve been at this a long time, but you just have to be a lifelong learner and at some point YOU have to be in charge of your development.
Dreams Don’t Die
Julie