Much Ado About Nothing

My big Shakespeare debut will the most boring role in the play: Friar Francis. When I arrived at "call-backs" (after the Sodalitas Macula meeting) I was surprised to see slew of new faces ... Well new to me since I had attended both of the "official" auditions. These faces, however, were not new to the rest of regular members of the theatre.

For the past two days I had been reading for every part except Benedick (the most sought-after role in the play). I only wanted a good character role that I could sink my actor teeth into.

However ... The call-back auditions saw me reading the roles of "Messenger" and "Second Watchman".

Then around 10pm they said, "We'll be calling with offers until midnight". I didn't get called, though I sat up and waited. I sat up til 2am worrying that I hadn't been cast at all. I began to feel that my Theatre Degree would be better used as toilet paper.

The next day, I was called by the director offering me the role of Friar Francis - one of the smallest parts in the play. The size of the role doesn't bother me, but it is such a boring part. Arguably, he is important in that he comes up with the idea that makes everything work out happy in the end ... But there is nothing to play. He is neither funny, nor anguished, nor vengeful, nor amorous, nor interesting. Seriously, you could get your IT geek to play this role, and no one would know any different.

I accepted the part. I didn't spend three nights auditioning for nothing, though I feel like I got the part only because someone else turned it down.

Please don't come to see this if you want to see me act. I am hoping though that Molly will be honored that I am playing a character named Francis, and in honor of Bill's brother-in-law, I am going to wear man-clogs under my robes.

In short ... The amount of time I spent auditioning to land such a small part is truly "much ado about nothing".