Backstage for Don Quixote

Well, as expected, I didn't get cast.

It was exciting, though, to get to be backstage at the Opera House in the Kennedy Center for the first time. They gathered the fourteen potential candidates in the Hall of Nations to fill out forms and get assigned audition numbers. I was number 68, and the tallest one there. Precisely at 2:00, they escorted the group through the Opera House stage door, up the freight elevator, and into a large rehearsal hall with a wall that was mirrored from floor to ceiling. Once there, everyone was arranged in a straight line in front of the artistic director, stage manager, and costume designer. The artistic director paired me up a couple of times with different guys, but the costume designer didn't want me. This ballet opens Wednesday night, and there isn't a lot of time to remake costumes, so they really were trying to find people to fit existing costumes. Oh, well. So it goes, though, for supernumeraries in ballets and operas. They often cast based on who fits the costumes, and they only wanted eight guys for this show. I may get another chance in July, though, since a couple of the Kennedy Center staffers asked me to come "audition" for a supernumerary role in Le Corsaire, being done by the Kirov Ballet. That could be fun.