My Summer Gig

Last summer, I took a bunch of coursework to finish my master's degree. The summer of 2006 is somehow a blur. The three summers before that I acted in my local community theatre, who, unfortunately, have jettisoned their summer comedies in favor of producing two musicals in the summer, which counts me out. So, figuring I needed something to do this summer to keep busy and keep my mind off my impending depression, I "applied" for and was hired to direct the summer community theatre play down in Rushford. The play they're producing is called The Sensuous Senator, and is a pretty funny farce. A lot of it (the humor) is going to depend on timing and blocking. I'm thinking it should be fun. Auditions were held last weekend. For a play with five female roles (one is so small it's basically a cameo, and could easily be doubled if necessary) and four male roles, I had five females and three males audition. I was, needless to say, a bit disappointed in that turnout. The RASA (Rushford's arts group) people (who accounted for about half the auditioneers) didn't seem too surprised. It's always like this, they told me, hard to get people to audition. Okay, but we're still short at least one actor for putting on the show. We'll see what happens from here. They thought they might be able to recruit someone.