- Published on
Imagine your whole life
You wanted to be in a musical in New York City
And one day
It is announced
That your chorus
Will be performing
Lady in the Dark
at City Center
You audition to be in the semi-chorus
Which is later called the chamber chorus
You get to go to extra rehearsals
And be moved around by Doug Varone
You watch his extraordinary dancers
In action
And remember how much you used to love to dance
Before fear and self-consciousness and demons took over
You sit in rehearsal
And marvel that
Tony Award winner Victoria Clark
Is right there in front of you
She sings “My Ship”
Not three feet away
And you want to melt in the loveliness that is her voice
You watch director Ted Sperling
And feel amazed
That after all those years of listening to
Titanic and Light in the Piazza and Floyd Collins and Anastasia
On repeat
You get to work with and
Learn from this extraordinary person
It's not just the big names you learn from
Julie Morgan, associate conductor, and her eye (ear?) for detail
Your fellow cast members
Especially the high school students
Remembering what it's like to go through this process for the first time
The joy of sharing rehearsals
The hours spent together
Rehearsals fly by all too quickly
One week will it ever be right
Then out of the hat it’s that big first night
The—
Actually, no overture in this musical
Straight into a scene
Your make-up is on
Your tiara is perched on your head and
You sit backstage in the dim blue gel light
A lady in the dark
Watching the hustle of all the people
Running costume pieces across to stage right
Placing prop popcorn boxes stage left
Stage hands and costume assistants and musicians and security guards
The actors are the last part
Or perhaps the audience is
There is a line in Michael Gow’s Away
“Fancy doing it night after night like in America. Plays go on for years there. London too."
Our play only ran for 3 days
A limited engagement
I wished it could’ve been longer
But in the moment
To stand on a stage and be
A part of creating gorgeous glorious music and
Tell stories
A dream.
You wanted to be in a musical in New York City
And one day
It is announced
That your chorus
Will be performing
Lady in the Dark
at City Center
You audition to be in the semi-chorus
Which is later called the chamber chorus
You get to go to extra rehearsals
And be moved around by Doug Varone
You watch his extraordinary dancers
In action
And remember how much you used to love to dance
Before fear and self-consciousness and demons took over
You sit in rehearsal
And marvel that
Tony Award winner Victoria Clark
Is right there in front of you
She sings “My Ship”
Not three feet away
And you want to melt in the loveliness that is her voice
You watch director Ted Sperling
And feel amazed
That after all those years of listening to
Titanic and Light in the Piazza and Floyd Collins and Anastasia
On repeat
You get to work with and
Learn from this extraordinary person
It's not just the big names you learn from
Julie Morgan, associate conductor, and her eye (ear?) for detail
Your fellow cast members
Especially the high school students
Remembering what it's like to go through this process for the first time
The joy of sharing rehearsals
The hours spent together
Rehearsals fly by all too quickly
One week will it ever be right
Then out of the hat it’s that big first night
The—
Actually, no overture in this musical
Straight into a scene
Your make-up is on
Your tiara is perched on your head and
You sit backstage in the dim blue gel light
A lady in the dark
Watching the hustle of all the people
Running costume pieces across to stage right
Placing prop popcorn boxes stage left
Stage hands and costume assistants and musicians and security guards
The actors are the last part
Or perhaps the audience is
There is a line in Michael Gow’s Away
“Fancy doing it night after night like in America. Plays go on for years there. London too."
Our play only ran for 3 days
A limited engagement
I wished it could’ve been longer
But in the moment
To stand on a stage and be
A part of creating gorgeous glorious music and
Tell stories
A dream.