Genki 2012

Yesterday (Saturday) we had auditions for this year's Tosaben musical, a.k.a. Genki. The musicals always combine something related to Kochi and a western story of some type. This year's musical is about a famous painter who was accused of forgery (if that's what you would call it), and it's been structured around the story of Peter Pan. I don't know a ton about the plot yet, but I think it's going to be a really awesome one.

For the musical, if you want any kind of speaking role you have to audition. I went in without a particular role in mind, but I knew that I was interested in a medium sized role (like last year) and I definitely wanted to dance. The audition process is basically that you go in, read an excerpt of the script in English and in Japanese, sing a song of your choice, and answer some questions about how much time you are willing to commit. I thought that my audition went well; I sang about as well as I'm capable of, and I felt like I did a reasonably good job of reading the script. The interesting thing for me is that I didn't get particularly nervous for the audition. I felt very comfortable throughout the whole thing. So I left feeling pretty happy about it.

The directors had a meeting after the auditions were finished and decided all the roles that day. Julie, who is the manager this year, sent out the cast list this evening. It turned out pretty nicely; Sasha gets to be Tinkerbell, which is the role she had wanted from the very beginning, Julie will be Pita Pan (yes, that is a deliberate bread joke there), and I'll be one of the Lost Voice (the lost boys). In this version, Pita Pan and the Lost Voice are an aspiring pop band. There's still the theme of never wanting to grow up, but the characters are rather different. I'm pretty happy with my role in that I get to dance and I'll probably get a fun costume, as well. My character (Lost Voice #2) is constantly sleepy, which I think will work out fine for me since my acting tends to be pretty bland anyways.

In a surprising twist of fate, Matt (from my Board of Education) will take the role of Captain Hook. It surprised me that he would get such a main role because his Japanese is pretty basic. He also has a very unassuming personality; one of his nicknames is "Sheepish". But apparently in the audition he really blew them away with his reading of the English script. I'm looking forward to seeing him act.

One thing that's a little disappointing is that although I felt like I auditioned well, I may have shot myself in the foot during the question time. They basically asked me if I felt like I could handle a bigger role this year, and while I said I could definitely handle a role the size of the one I had last year, I think I expressed a little too much doubt about my current skill level. I really do think I could memorize more lines this year, but I'm not sure exactly how much more I could handle. Given that I also didn't really know much about the size of the main roles, I didn't feel I could claim that I could do it. So I probably sold myself short. Afterward I started to wonder if maybe they had been considering me for Pita Pan. I don't really know whether or not that was the case, but I kind of wish I had expressed more confidence in my abilities. The lucky thing is that Julie ended up with the role; if it had been someone else, I might've gotten jealous or resentful. But since it's Julie I can be happy about it. Her acting skills are great, and her Japanese is WAY better than mine, so honestly I probably couldn't have gotten the role even if I had tried for it. And I'm confident that she'll do a much better job of it than I would. So when it comes down to it, I'm not too fussed that I didn't get that particular role, but I'm a little upset with myself for not being confident enough to say, "Yeah, I could do a bigger role". Instead it came out more like, "Well, last year's number of lines was definitely manageable, and I think my Japanese has improved, but I only did level N4 of the JLPT and I'm not sure I passed..." with all kinds of other doubts tacked on. I really need to learn that it's okay to promote myself in those situations.

Still, I'm very excited for this year's musical. Sasha and I have also agreed to collaborate on choreographing a dance. Last year I was very adamant that I wouldn't do it, but this year I'm willing to give it a shot. I hope I won't end up regretting it, haha. But I'm looking forward to the first rehearsal, where we'll get to actually see the script. Rehearsals start next weekend and will go until the performances in April. And so Genki 2012 begins...