100 Things About Me #178
The other day, I read a press release. A summer stock tour of "The Sound of Music" is coming through the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, as well as Tampa and Washington, D.C. Rehearsals are scheduled in New York.
Theater of the Stars will hold auditions for children and teens between the ages of 7-17 for The Sound of Music on Saturday, April 10 at 10:00 a.m. These auditions are for Actors’ Equity and non-Equity actors. ... We are looking for girls and boys who dance and sing well to be cast in the roles of the von Trapp Family Children.
This is it! My big chance and, most importantly, my dream come true! For many years, I've been telling ev'rybody I meet and bleat that one of my favorite things would be to play Gretl in "The Sound of Music."
"I believe she's more like four," I correct them. I'm the one up for the part.
"Mike! You are 10 times older than her!"
"I'd say 14 times, adjusting for me lying in my favor about my age."
"You are insane!"
"No, I'm not. I am an actor! It's what I do, act. And ingénue. I ingénue and pre-ingénue. It's the gift."
"Pish posh. Slap some Nazi Keds under my knees and I'm dancing and tugging hearts."
"Why? Tell me why do you want to do this."
"She gets all the 'ahhhs.' Say it with me, 'Ahhh.' Pretend you're the audience, 'Ahhhhh--'"
"You'll never pull it off!"
"You forget dimply. I'm luxuriously dimpled and I do adorable. If I need shave, I'll shave."
And that's where the gift usually has to find alternate transportation home.
Here I am rehearsing "Do-Re-Mi." I give good "Mi."
Lederhosen out of storage this weekend, I'm set to go on the road.
I'm already thinking billing.
Mike Durrett
is
Gretl
in
"The Sound of Music"
(Larger, von Cuddlier Tour)
Just need a pet sitter at the house for my lonely goatherd.
