The Day Before Rehearsal

Today I am sitting in Heine Brother's in Louisville, KY, and tomorrow I will be rehearsing a show in New York City. I have spent so much time auditioning in New York city that the studios where most auditions are held, have become a second home to me.  You can ask at the front desk where the best lunch spots are near Ripley Grier or Chelsea but my favorite spots are better.  Perhaps you need to find the bathroom so that you can change only to realize that there is a dedicated changing room at Chelsea studios, well, I have been there done that.  For the next ten days i will be locked away at Chelsea Studios rehearsing for the tour of All Shook Up, and even after all of these years, starting with a new company still makes me anxious.

The stellar reputation of the theater that I am working for aside, you never know what you are going to get when you walk into a rehearsal space for the first time.  The first twenty minutes are always filled with introductions reunions, and games of 6 degrees of separation, and that's even before the official day has begun.  Will the stage manager be organized? Will the director be collaborative but decisive? Will these kids just out of college get on my nerves in an hour or a month?  Will I live up to the expectations they developed through the audition process? Do I even know how to do a musical? My resume says yes, but my neuroses says maybe, maybe not.

Still, I have signed the contract, I can't back out now, and their is no point in worrying about tomorrow, because ready or not, it is coming.