The Pitter of Patter, pt. 1

        So, today was the beginning of two new ventures for me.  The first is an audition for a showcase to be held at Don't Tell Mama's as part of Seth's Talent Showcase.  Basically, a showcase is a mini-cabaret where you get ten minutes to sing two songs and patter.  Patter is basically just the chatter in between the songs that tells the audience a little something about yourself and ties the two songs together.  I've been a performer for a long time but, usually, it's involved a director telling me what to do with work that's already been previously written.  This showcase is a little different in that it's, pretty much, my own little show that I'll put together myself.



       The idea of coming up with the patter seems a smidge daunting to me because I've never considered myself an overly chatty person.  It's always been easier just to read the lines off of the page that someone else wrote.  But when the idea about this showcase was presented to me, it seemed like a good idea.  Auditions are a necessity for performers who work in theater but, they're also not much fun.  This seems like a chance to be seen by industry people while, actually getting to perform more than a 16 or 32-bar cut of a song and being told, "Thanks for coming in."

       Anyway, I went in to Don't Tell Mama's and was so nervous.  I wasn't nervous because of the song.  No, I had gone over that about seven times earlier that day so, I knew that I was gonna be ok with it.  What I was nervous about was the patter.  Funny thing is, for the audition part of this I only had to patter for about 20 to 30 seconds.  One would think that that shouldn't be too hard but, if you're like me, you agonize over those 20 to 30 seconds worried that it's going to make or break your chance of doing the showcase.  So, I did my best to relate the song (Lost In the Wilderness by Stephen Schwartz, by the way) to my own life and just went.  After a about 30 seconds, Seth (the guy who is in charge of the showcase) started the first notes of the song and I felt some serious relief.  The two and half minutes of the song were nothing compared to the 20 to 30 seconds of just talk.

       So I left DTM's feeling good and will, hopefully, hear something soon about whether they want me for an upcoming showcase.  I'll let you know what happens.  I also want to talk about the other venture I started on 09-09-09 but, I'll get to that later.

       Until then.....


----MC