Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Meet the cast: Our very own Annie, Jessica Raaum

Meet Jessica Raaum, our pistol-packing, sharp-shooting Annie Oakley, and the Annie, of course, for whom Annie Get Your Gun is named.

Unlike many a cast member Jessica has never performed at Foothill Music Theatre before. In fact she almost missed the opportunity to do so this time around!

She had been told about Foothill doing Annie, and that Foothill was a great place to work, but it was only because she happend to go see a closing weekend performance of last winter's Urinetown that she saw a went the Saturday of closing weekend and saw a sign advertising the Annie auditions- only that very day or the following Monday!! Jessica has somehow thought it was the next week and would have completely missed the auditions had she not seen Urinetown! Jessica QUICKLY went and found an Annie Get Your Gun CD (with Ethyl Merman) before going to the audition. The she had a week before the callbacks to get some more research done! So perhaps it was fated for Jessica to be our Annie, right?


Jessica is a real performing addict, and loves just about every part of it for different reasons:

I love the rehearsals as you discover new stuff and start to see the show take form; the run-throughs help boost my confidence as we get more and more stuff cemented in before we open, and performing- well, that's when all the hard work pays off and you get to play!!

It's certainly nice to have an audience!! There's nothing better than a positive response from the audience, but it's our job as actors to keep going, no matter what the audience does (or doesn't do!). They may be loving it silently, you never know.

I totally agree, Jessica.

Jessica hosts at the Octavia Lounge in San Francisco on Friday nights, which she will continue up until Opening Night and then continue after Closing. And after that? Well, she's got some possibilities in the works. She's definitely looking to pay the bills with performing, so watch out for Jessica!


Comments:
I have to say that Jessica is a big ray of light on the stage, and a completely unselfish actor. We're so fortunate to have her as Annie!
 
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