Although not a theater major or necessarily interested in pursuing acting, I acted in several of the big (semester-long) theater productions in college. (I was dating girls in the acting department, that was my main attraction to acting.)
They decided to stage Equus. I auditioned as a matter of course. *Everyone *was auditioning, I went along with the crowd. I’d read through some of the script, but didn’t really grasp it. Like I said, I was in it for the chicks. In the audition I read for all the male parts.
For the audition I honestly didn’t know what I was doing, I just threw myself into it with wild abandon. I had nothing to lose. I wasn’t a theater major, I didn’t desperately want the lead role (as others stated openly they did), I really had nothing to lose and nothing to prove. At the audition itself I worked myself into a crying jag (during a read for Alan). It was surreal (as in… I really didn’t know what was going on). The theater major who said (repeatedly, to anyone who would listen) he desperately wanted the part of Alan had to follow me, reading the same scene, after I did the crying. I remember wondering if he hated me (he did) for turning on the water works. I wasn’t really trying for the part, but he was.
I, as were most other people, was thoroughly shocked when I got the part of Alan (the disturbed boy).
I actually do have some acting / performing talent (I was a music major and had extensive performance experience), we had a very good director, the rest of the cast and all the technical crew and the set were all great, it was a fantastic production that “worked” on every level, and was quite a hit. Yes, we (I) did the full nudity.
Once I got the role, however, I couldn’t just turn it down. It was an honor, and a challenge, and I felt I needed to step up. I think the director chose me for the part because I was talented but untrained, a lump of clay she could work with.
We did the first read-through. It was then that “nude scene” finally sunk in. “I’ve got to…. what?” Oh, yeah, and we’re doing it in the round, not up on stage with the audience a comfortable distance away. “I’ve got to…. what?” It was also then that the subtext, nuances, themes etc. started to come out. Religion / sex / homosexuality / etc. “I’ve got to…. what?” Really, I had no clue what I was getting into, and quite surprised when I found out.
But like I said, the whole production was very well done and a big hit all around.