We’ve had the first read-through and the first music rehearsal. I am feeling more confident, though tonight we are choreographing Oom Pah Pah, and that is a bit daunting! Fortunately, my dear friend, Sonnia, who is playing Bet, is more than happy to dance on and dive off the bar in my place, and I have no problem with attention being diverted to her during the song. (In fact, I say, “Woot!” She is quite talented and a lot of fun. The audience will love her!)
Now I am working on character building. I spend a lot of quiet moments wondering what compels a woman to stay with a man who is abusive. Nancy and Bill are not married. He has no redeeming traits that are obvious to the audience. So the key for me is building a back story that includes who Bill was in the past and what may have been the draw for Nancy. How long have they been together? Is he capable of love, tenderness? (I don’t think so, but that’s me… not Nancy, right?) Did they grow up together under Fagen’s “tutelage”? Was it young love/lust that just became familiar, comfortable, “normal”?
I will have no problem embracing the nurturing, somewhat maternal side of my Nancy. The one that takes joy in the boys. Or the live-in-the-moment, cup-is-half-full way of taking things as they come, as she celebrates in “It’s a Fine Life”. It’s kinda’ how I do things anyway, so that isn’t a real stretch for me. I do have a wicked side that is very Nancy. Mostly it’s that whole staying with an abusive bastard thing I have trouble understanding and feeling. But getting there… well, that is the grand adventure of acting, isn’t it? That’s my passion. That moment of understanding, connection with the emotion, letting go of Jeanne and becoming Nancy.
Say a prayer for my wobbly ankles and my tempermental back/sciatica! If Jimmy has me up on or leaping off any bar, I’m in TROUBLE!
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