Beauty IS a Beast

Beauty is a Beast. Look at that again. Beauty IS a Beast. It’s not the show you think it is at first glance; there is no enchanted castle, no dancing flatware, no singing candelabras. Just a sort of twisted story about a Princess in need of one heck of an attitude adjustment. Having myself been in Beauty AND the Beast about a year ago I thought I knew what I was getting into… I wasn’t even close.
Auditions were held May 20, we had 9 try out for this 15-person show. Yet another round of auditions were held the following week where we found another 5 members to the cast. Alright, close enough. We held the read-thru a day later where we found out that one of our cast members from the first round of auditions had dropped out, but we also had another 2 kids joining the cast for the read-thru. Yes, yes, yes! The read-thru went very well, and I was satisfied with my picks. A week later when the first rehearsal was under way we received word that another one of the kids had dropped out of the show. So, we continued the search, and found one more kid. Bringing us to, if my math is right, a total of 13 kids. We combined a few roles, and made a few edits here and there and then we started rehearsing.
With thirteen 5th-8th graders there’s gonna be some conflicts, and I was in the middle of a war zone. This one couldn’t sit next to that one, and he couldn’t do this because he was looking at him, etc. The principles were the least of my worries, it was the secondary and supporting cast that caused the most raucous. But things went on (surprisingly) ahead of schedule. Everyone, well almost everyone, memorized lines and blocking quickly, which gave me more time to find stuff for them to do in character. Costumes (most hand-made by my awesome sewin’ sister) were great, choreography was good, the acting was…okay… and it was almost the week of the show!
Show week can be a stressful time, and boy did I feel the stress! Cast members missing from first dress rehearsal without letting anyone know they would be gone, trying to coorinate a new sound and lights operator (and a new stage crew member who couldn't take the pressure leaving us to find yet another one), and trying to make sure the story got across. AAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! As the first show started I could feel a change in everyone’s energy, they were projecting, cheating out, it was an entirely different show that it was a week ago. First show was great, except for a section in scene 4 where half the cast started laughing on stage, but let’s not talk about that…
The next show was… eh… everyone was tired, and ready for this thing to be over. And I was with them, it was an exhausting 24 rehearsals. But thankfully, a few of the principle cast members still had enough energy to give the audience a good show.
We played almost to capacity both shows and the kids really did a good job, it was a tough, but fun, road; and I hope everyone remembers their time during Beauty IS a Beast.