Auditions

...were yesterday and today, but that's not what's important. What is important is the fact that the director of the show in question called me up about an hour ago and asked me to play - get this - a prince!

I know! That was my reaction too!

I mean, me? Big, tall, doofy Steve as a love-interest Prince Charming? Moreover, an Indian Prince Charming. (More on that further in.) Not like, Native American Indian, I mean from, like, Dubai Indian. I guess I could give myself a make-up tan and darken my eye sockets a bit, but apart from that, I'm about as WASP (barring the last bit) as you can get without being from the South.

So here's the skinny on the show:

It's called "The Ash Girl", written by Timberlake Wertenbaker (that's a woman, btw), and it's being produced by the ABC Players in Nelsonville, OH. Go ahead and do the Google search. I know you want to. Nelsonville is about fifty to sixty miles from the greater Columbus area, so traveling between here and there is going to be painful, to say the least. However, the direct happens to live half-way betweeen here and there and offered to give me a lift so long as I can make it to her house in Lancaster, OH. That drive is about twenty minutes. Much easier to manage.

Okay, so, commute bitching aside, the play should prove to be very interesting. The story follows a basic Cinderella pattern, aligning itself closer to the Grimms version, rather than the nicey-nice singing Disney version, complete with body mutilation on the part of the Stepsisters. but that's not the best part. The best part is this whole set of characters based off the seven deadly sins plus one extra who are kind of like demonic animals.

So, there's these seven animals, right? A bird, a fly, a worm, a toad, a monkey and a snake, with Lust being played by a normal-looking human being. The plus one is Sadness, who will probably be portrayed as a wraith-like woman with claws. Well, she would if I had any say about it. These characters try to take over the other characters in the story. For more details, read the script. It's not too bad. A little obvious at times, but it could be much worse.

Now, for my character. I am playing an exiled prince who falls madly in love with a strange and waifish young woman who happens to stride into the ball my mother (an exiled Princess) is throwing in order to marry me off. Our eyes meet and the rest is history and hormones.

To be honest, I'm not that confident I can play a prince charming in any sense. Perhaps if he was the villain, or if he was the boss ordering the lovers around, maybe. Well, totally, but the love interest? Me? Psshh. I will do my level best to rise to the occasion, but I can't guarantee how well I'm going to do.

So that's the very latest in Steve-related nonsense and shenanigans. Stay tuned for further updates!

-S.