Almost Tevye

It was close. I almost went to the audition. But, I didn't.

A week ago I saw in the paper that the Hale Theater people in Salt Lake were going to be doing Fiddler on the Roof in February and were going to be holding auditions on Saturday, December 5. This was the moment I had been waiting for. For many years I had thought that I wanted to do the Tevye part in a big, quality production of Fiddler on the Roof. I had done it in small church mini productions years ago when we lived in Nashville and had been very well received by the audiences. The role was actually perfect for me and I had been very comfortable doing it. I had long thought that if the opportunity came again, I would surely try to audition. When we moved to the Salt Lake area almost three years ago, I realised that there would be plenty of opportunities to do live theater, if I wanted to. so I decided I would keep my eyes open and maybe try out for some smaller roles in other plays or musicals to see if I still had any acting chops and bide my time for an opportunity to put on the prayer shawl. I took a small part in a local community production of Sound of Music a couple of years ago to see if I had enjoyment for the stage left in me. It was Okay--I didn't embarrass myself too much. Then last year I took a big role in Smokey Joe's Cafe and thoroughly enjoyed it. The audience was very responsive to my performance. I thought "Yeh, I can do this." I would maybe go for it when the time came. Since then I have been working really hard at finishing up my two Blues CDs and getting by Blues Band, The Mundy Mourning Blues Band, ready to play out. Those things have been accomplished, so when I saw that Hale was doing Fiddler, I got excited. I wasn't sure I wanted to commit though to such a big production. I searched around and found music to take to the audition and I had some 8X10s made up, and put together a new acting bio. I even started singing If I were a Rich Man and trying to recite some of Tevye's dialog from the show to slap my Russian accent into shape. I even emailed a friend of mine who has appeared in a recent Hale production to ask about pay. I really wanted to do it, but then i went to their website to see what the dates for rehearsals and performances would be and I decided that the time commitment would be too great for me at this time. With sadness I elected to not attend the audition. Maybe it won't be my last opportunity. I hope not. It could have been great. I might have been a sensation. I would hate that the theater-goers in the Salt Lake City area would never get to see me do the Tevye stomp.