Well, my school’s fall drama is coming up and, as can probably be discerned from the title of this thread, we’re performing “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Auditions were on Thursday last week, and call-backs were Monday and Tuesday night. The extra day before posting was added because our director enjoys watching us suffer.
Anyway, on Thursday I did a monologue from a play called “Light Sensitive”. I haven’t read it myself, but I found the monologue in a book and liked it alot. I gave it, and a lot of people said that it was one of the best ones at the audition. That, and the fact that I’m a senior this year, started to make me think that I might, just might, get to play the part of Atticus Finch, hero of lawyers everywhere.
Come callbacks Monday night, we were reading scenes from the play. I got to read the scene where Atticus interrogates the lovely miss Mayella Ewell, and did a pretty good job considering that it was a cold reading. On Tuesday, it went pretty much the same way, except that after everyone else had left, the director called myself and my friends Dave and Steve up to the stage. We were each given Atticus’ closing argument monologue to read cold, which we all did. I interjected a pretty good amount of emotion into it, and carried it pretty well, I believe. Steve did his fairly well, but he wasn’t really going for Atticus’ part anyway. Dave did very well, but read it a bit more “officially” than I had.
So, we waited a day, and come 12:30, a large number of prospective players were in front of the main message board at school. The cast list came up and…
I didn’t get the part. You’re looking at Heck Tate, Sheriff of Maycomb County.
Dave got the part, which isn’t a surprise because it was pretty much between he and I from the start. In the end, he just did something better than I did, and we were so close to even that it made all the difference.
So, I propose a toast, to Atticus Finch. You got the part I wanted, Dave, but I wish you the best of luck in it. I have no doubt that you’ll do amazingly, and fill Mr. Finch’s shoes quite nicely. As for me, I plan on being the best damn sherriff Maycomb County ever saw.
<raises glass>
-Walt