So what are you thinking of doing for auditions?” Rowena asks at my voice lesson Saturday. “Phantom?”
“I’m tired of that.”
Rowena raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything. “How about this then?” She points to the Mozart piece I’ve been practicing.
I shake my head. “I was thinking of this.” I take out the vocal selections from Hairspray, a rock opera on Broadway based on an old cult movie.
Rowena looks doubtful. “I have to say, this doesn’t completely sound like you.” Fred the cat jumps onto the keyboard and glares at my music.
“The girl in this song has a weight problem,” I say. “Besides, I want to change my image.” I pet Fred’s head.
“Interesting. You know, I was talking to Ms. Wolfe about you the other day.”
“Let me guess—she thinks I should change my major to dance.”
I don’t even get a smile from her. “Actually, she was wondering if perhaps you’d be more comfortable in regular music, instead of musical theater.”
“Oh.” I get it. So I wouldn’t have to take Dance. Or Drama. Or hang with people who can just improvise armpit songs, because I’m a one-note wonder, not a triple threat. Got it. “But you recommended musical theater. You said if I wanted to do opera, I should learn all that stuff—acting and movement—to perform onstage.”
“Well, it’s certainly nice when an opera singer knows those things. But on the other hand, lots of singers are—”
“Big fat blobs who have to be wheeled across the stage on a handtruck?”
“I didn’t say that.” Rowena stops petting Fred, who looks at her reproachfully. “And you could never be that anyway.”
“I was that.”
“You were … chubby. In any case, I told her not to write you off so quickly in dance. I said I thought you were a young woman who could do anything she set her mind to—including dance.”
I do Rowena’s visualization exercise. I visualize myself dancing, flying across the stage, or part of a kick-line like a stupid Rockette.
It doesn’t completely work.
“Do you think I can do it?” I mean the program, not just this song.
“I think sometimes it’s good to go outside your comfort zone. On the other hand, I hate to see you lose track of who you are, just for the sake of trying to fit in,” Rowena says.
“That’s not what I’m doing. I just thought I’d like to try something different … for fun.”
“Okay.” Rowena reaches for the Hairspray music. “Well try it and see how it goes. For fun.”