The Sherrie Diaries: Entry 1

I’ve always been terrible about keeping a journal or diary of any kind, so why not try one here? One doesn’t often get cast as a girl from Kansas that has moved away in search of love and fame, only to find the greatest love of her life amid music, dancing, and some interesting characters, especially when one was once a girl from Kansas that moved away in search of love and fame, only to find the greatest love of my life amid music, dancing, and some interesting characters… Wait a minute…

Just kidding. (Except I am from Kansas and moved away in search of… you get it.)

So I’m actually going to “journal” a little bit here, and share some of my experience with you! I’ve been in one production with Harbor Playhouse before as a choreographer-turned-dancer, and it was so much fun! (You can read about that here.) With this being my first one as a performer only, I’m so excited to be a part of the action from the beginning to the end, and to share this experience with so many amazing people!

So buckle up, buttercup.

Week 1

Once the dust settled after casting, we had our first read/sing through and got our librettos. I was a little nervous, remembering that people actually sang and read lines in the Oklahoma read through, so there was maybe just a little pressure in my head as I smiled for my headshot.

You don’t suck, I told myself. You’ve only listened to this soundtrack 543 times in the last week; you’ll be fine.

I saw people that I recognized from my audition night, and many that I had seen or heard of through the theater family. It’s funny meeting people you’ve heard about or seen online, you almost feel a little starstruck like, “oh, that’s you! I’m actually meeting you now!”

Then we sat down to get to business, and I was immediately grateful for some Oklahomies that were in the show, too! The read/sing through started off with a bang, when our Lonny rang out those first few lines of the opening song. I’m pretty sure my first thought was something along the lines of, oh heck yeah. Only it wasn’t “heck”.

I got nervous when I had to sing my first big high note in “Harden My Heart”, despite having auditioned with it. Adrenaline does funny things, and that high F (I had no idea it was that high!!) turned into something more like a G… But I survived! And I was only anxious for more.

The next couple of days, we immediately jumped into music rehearsals. The ensemble sings so much in all of these songs that we focused on some of the bigger songs to start with, including some of the more difficult tunes! I’m still not 100% that I’m singing the right notes on the “Pour Some Sugar On Me” song, but I’ve got time… That’s what I keep telling myself… Despite it being tricky and an especially high range for the guys in the cast, I felt like we were starting to sound pretty good by the end of the last rehearsal.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a “choir” or “musical” setting, and dude I missed this. I missed being one of the prissy sopranos (I’m a soprano, I can call myself prissy), listening to the altos sass the tenors, laughing at the tenors being tenors (if you know, you know), and noticing the laid back quiet that I’ve come to expect from the basses.

It felt good to frantically circle notes that I kept missing, ask shyly for our Music Director to play a certain line more than once, sight read poorly, and commiserate over tricky jumps and lyrics with my castmates. It’s been since college, maybe, that I’ve sang as part of a group and it’s just fun. My castmates also make it fun, and I can’t wait to get to know them better throughout the run of the show.

For myself, I’ve been getting into a habit of learning lines and reviewing music. I’ve got my little schedule for learning scenes and lines, and it’s coming along surprisingly well. For someone who can walk into a room and forget why she went in there at all, I’m remembering my lines really well! I’m even an entire scene ahead. We’ll see how long it lasts, but I’ll take what I can get in case I need a little grace later on.

We’ve got more songs and even some choreography teed up for next week (I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am for choreography!), so it’ll be another exciting week! 5/31/2024

Week 2

Week 2 was all about pushing forward with more music! Our Music Director had a big list lined up for us, and we worked hard to learn everything. For the ensemble parts, there was a lot of backup singing, but there were plenty of solo parts for soloists to learn… Luckily I’ve listened to the original Broadway cast recording like 5000 times? 6000 times?

Probably too many times…

But it was so cool to listen as the songs came together! For “just backup singing”, there are some pretty tricky harmonies for each part (basically everyone but the sopranos, I’ll be honest!), so learning each song is a little more than just knowing the words. It’s been awhile since I was in a performing situation where I was singing music that I knew super well, but singing parts of the song that I didn’t really already know and that had to coordinate with other parts and harmonies.

Jumping back into singing has been both exhilarating and challenging! It’s one thing to see how your choreography matches up against your fellow dancers when dancing multiple parts in a piece; it’s another to hear how the parts connect while also dancing and acting your face off. It’s a challenge that I’m so ready to take on!

Even on the trickier songs, though, there’s major progress in each rehearsal. I don’t know if everyone else hears it or feels it, but I do. There’s already so much teamwork within this cast with helping each other learn the music, find notes in the music, practice different harmonies, and sharing scores. It just makes me so happy to be a part of a group that works together so well!

If anything, it felt weird sitting at home last Monday night while dance rehearsals started. In literally every musical I’ve ever been in before this one, I was always some variation of “Featured Dancer” in the cast. And after the dance portion of the audition, I was (and still am!) so excited to work with our Choreographer! So being left out of a dance rehearsal felt so strange this time. I think that’s when it kind of started sinking in that this show is going to be very different for me for a lot of reasons.

For those of you who are being cast in ensemble roles and longing for your chance at the spotlight, let me tell you to just enjoy and savor these moments in the ensemble. This is where you’re not only honing your skills, but you’re building the relationships with your cast mates that will become the backbone of the show. And you’re going to have SO MUCH FUN in the process, spending long hours together in rehearsal and on stage. There’s a tiny part of me that has a little bit of FOMO watching these dance rehearsals take shape.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still beside myself with excitement at being cast in a lead role, and I’m enjoying every moment of this process! And I know that my time will come (“Pour Some Sugar”, anyone?), so I’ll enjoy watching these dance moments take shape and seeing the camaraderie bloom with my cast mates in the meantime.

It’s a whole new world in this show! Learning lines, bucking my nerves to sing big solos in front of my cast mates in rehearsal, rehearsing every free moment throughout my days, it’s been a blast and a LOT of work already in the best way.

For a naive girl with daddy issues from Kansas, Sherrie has some pretty good advice. “There’s no guess! You want something? …You gotta just take it!”

And that’s just what I’m going to do!