Thinking about how much I love to sing and dance….about how the psychic said I need to dance more, anywhere, all the time. Thinking about when I turn 50, how spectacular my one-woman show will be…The is a list poem/haibun blend. If you can, get thee to a thea-tahhhh. So many fantastic plays are performed here!
Auditions & Roles
1. Don’t Cry for Me Argentina
A song I simply loved to sing, Madonna-style, palms cupped in plea in front of my uncertain rabble…or the producer and director of the local theatre. Sang so hard I closed my eyes, chin quivered emotional.
2. I Won’t Send Roses
I learned the song the night before. Accompanied on piano by my biology teacher who suggested it. Such a pretty song. Then beside the piano in front of the dusty black stage, I belly-belted the ballad. The director said: she’s got volume. Then the words left and the tune twisted and humiliation stole my breath.
3. Five, Six, Seven, Eight
A dance routine learned on the shiny-wood-floor-spot. Mirrors on three walls and
a hundred eyes eager and educated staring at the bodies vigorously dancing. In
the second row, I watched the feet of the girl in front of me. Flummoxed and faint,
I failed to nail the steps. Laughed myself out of the room.
4. Switch
Elementary school year-end play: Oliver! I sang a song with the word ‘switch’ in it. I didn’t know what it meant, so I asked. Thin stick for hitting. The part of an old woman, sweepin’ and singin’, I was given. I wanted to be Nancy. I wanted to sing As Long As He Needs Me. I knew all the words. Still do.
5. Cross It Off Tour
Five months pregnant and turning thirty. Set list in black Sharpie taped to the music stand. Guitarist seated next to me on the make-shift stage in the studio. I started with Like A Virgin, thrusting my baby-belly into the crowd. The laughs lifted me. Still lifting.
one-woman show
all the world is a stage
wind whistles harmony
VANESSA SHIELDS 