Great news: I received word today that I’ve been cast in “Bruce: The Musical”, a brand-new show being presented by Theatre in the Raw! As the TITR website says, “the show is an original two-act musical drama about the life of legendary Vancouver Downtown Eastside activist Bruce Eriksen, who transformed the neighborhood’s image from Skid Road to residential community. It’s a tale of triumph and tragedy, full of human drama, action, humour and song.” Harry Rankin also features as a character in the story (that’s Bruce and Harry on the right). It’s funny, I saw the audition notice for the show and was immediately drawn to its combination of lefty politics and populist theatre – with songs! – and yet I stalled on getting it together to audition. Then my friend Colleen Winton, a fantastic performer with whom I’ve appeared in shows in the past, emailed me to say I really ought to audition for it. I agreed. Yet still I let it slide for some reason. Finally the phone rang a few mornings ago – it was none other than Jay Hamburger, the show’s director! He’d gotten ahold of my number and heard that I might be a good candidate for an audition. Someone had apparently raved about me! I realized that it was time to stop fighting the universe and get my act together, already. I arranged to see him that evening. Then I dug up a monologue and brushed up on it… and ended up spending a very enjoyable time at the Theatre in the Raw studio with Jay – I sang a little (a capella since there was no pianist and I didn’t have a CD backing track or anything), did my monologue, we ran through some scenes from the script, and we just talked. The vibe was great and he shoehorned me into the callbacks scheduled for the next day. So I returned Tuesday at 4pm, and met musical director (and co-writer of the score) Bill Sample. I belted out a number (this time with Bill’s able accompaniment), and we went over a couple of songs from the show. Again, positive feelings all around. It seemed awfully promising. But I still needed to hear the official word.  Now I’ve gotten that confirmation. I still don’t know exactly what my role will be, but once I have more details, I’ll post them here. Meanwhile, this page on the Theatre in the Raw website has more details about Bruce: The Musical.