Macbeth Auditions . . . I don't think so

My older son and I auditioned for "Macbeth" last night.  I don't know how he did, but this could be a good experience for him.  He's been on a Shakespeare kick -- "Henry V" in the summer, "Much Ado" in the fall. 

For me, I'm not so hopeful. 

Remember that I'm not interested in a bit part.  My skills aren't improving, I'm not being challenged and I'm just phoning in my performances.  I determined that next year, I will not take any parts where I do not feel I am challenged as an actor.  The question isn't simply "am I going to be offered a part".  It's "am I going to be offered an interesting part". 

So, I went in to "Macbeth" auditions with a monologue prepared from "Richard III".  They provided us with sides to do some scenes . . . I was surprised by their choices.  One was a monologue spoken by Macbeth.  But . . . that's just a speech.  One was a comic speech by a porter, who appears in one scene.  But that's also just a speech.  One was an actual scene between Macbeth and his wife.  So, only one scene involving "interaction", and you were either reading for Macbeth or reading for the porter?  That seemed a bit minimal. 

I went in and did my monologue.  If nothing else, I'm probably the loudest person there!  They then asked me to read for the porter.  "Ugh!" I thought.  The porter?  I don't want to be the porter!  But I did it, and they seemed to like my performance.  Then, they said they would call me in later to do the Lady Macbeth scene.  I waited, and a few minutes later they said that in interest of saving time (read: in order to get through all the people that had shown up for the audition), they weren't going to call me back in. 

I have serious doubts that they will offer me the part of Macbeth if they didn't even hear me read for Macbeth!  I think I can safely write off that role.  If I am even going to be offered a part, the good news is that I can dig out a script pretty easily and check it.  I can determine whether or not it will be a challenge for me, and then respond to the offer accordingly.  If they offer me the porter, I'll just say "no".  If they don't offer me a part at all . . . well, have fun then. 

The last two times I auditioned for Shakespeare, we did several scenes, with different people taking different roles in a given scene. Shakespeare plays have large casts, so there are lots of places to fit people in.  For some reason, I wasn't originally offered a part in "Henry V", even though the director of that play liked my work.  He called me back in February and asked if I could take the part.  I did, which meant I was stuck with a scene spoken entirely in French.  For "As You Like It" . . . ugh!  This was my first "so bad I won't audition for that group again" experience.