Chicago

Here's the WHOLE story if you're interested in my crazy adventure:

We had just arrived back into the US from our European trip at midnight the night before. At noon, I received a call from a friend who had done a show the summer before at the Summer Theatre in Meredith Village. She said the director was looking for an emergency replacement for the role of Velma in Chicago. The catch was: there was only 3 days until opening night! I said I'd love the chance to put this role on my resume, but I had never done the show before. She said she would just tell the producer I had done it. I said "No! Don't say that!" but it was too late. The producer called me to offer the role, and I told her that I actually had performed some of the songs for cabaret shows and was very familiar with the music, but had never done the show itself. I assured her I thought I could do this and would love the opportunity, so she told me to get on the next bus to Boston and they'd pick me up from there.

I called around everywhere trying to find the script to the show, but no one had it. Finally I found one at the Marriott Marquis Broadway souvenir shop in Times Square, so after coping the score (which was over 200 pages) I lugged my suitcase to Times Square, picked up the script, and caught a cab to Penn Station. On the bus, I listened to the soundtrack, highlighted my script, and tried to memorize the music as much as possible.

When I arrived in Boston, I was picked up by one of the staff members and we drove 2 more hours to Meredith, NH. By the time we got to where I was staying, it was almost 3am. The accommodations, were less than sanitary, but that's another story. Welcome to non-union regional theatre.

My schedule for the next two days went something like this:
I woke up at 7am for an 8am rehearsal. That's 4 hours of sleep people.
I worked with the director until the cast came in for rehearsal at 11am.
We ran through the show at 1pm, and plugged me into the scenes.
We had our first non-stop run-through at 6pm. I worked with the band at 10pm.
In bed by 1am.
Up at 8am, 2 dress rehearsals.

Finally Tuesday, we had our final dress rehearsal in the morning, and opened that night!

I finally got a hang of things, and was able to actually enjoy my work at about Thursday of the first week.
Then we ran the show one more week and I was done, two weeks total. It literally flew by in a flash.

I really enjoyed working with everyone there, everyone was so encouraging and helpful to me, it was amazing how everyone joined forces to get it done.
It was a great personal experience too, I am so glad I was able to test and push myself to my limits, and find out that I am capable of doing more than I ever thought I could do! I am proud of my performance and proud of myself. It was a priceless experience, and I'd do it again!