However, when she returned to campus for the second semester of her junior year, she began to accept she wasn’t going to be in a main stage play at IU. Though Sagendorph had other small productions under her belt, she said being in an IU production was important to her.
That was until she received the results from her audition for “Sing To Me Now,” one of IU Theatre’s newest shows. Sagendorph found out Jan. 16 she was cast as Yankee, a lead role.
“It’s really cool, and usually people’s first main stage roles are not as big as this one,” Sagendorph said. “I’m really thankful because I wasn’t expecting to be cast in this show — or in this role, too — so I’ll take it for my first main stage role.”
When rehearsals started at the beginning of February, Sagendorph said, she learned how difficult it would be performing in an original play written by a Master of Fine Arts student. Unlike with the average play, MFA playwrights are constantly rewriting new drafts of the script. Sagendorph said she sat with her color-coded binder of drafts or a PowerPoint of her lines on her laptop at least an hour before each rehearsal just trying to learn her lines from the new edits.
“It’s difficult because you memorize the script one way, and then you get new pages and you have to rememorize it even though it’s ingrained in your brain,” Sagendorph said.
Within the first few weeks of rehearsal, Sagendorph said she felt like a chicken running around with its head cut off with all of the changes happening.
“I would say blocking changes as much as the script changes,” Sagendorph said, referring to the theater term for the physical placement of actors on a stage. “So that’s been another thing to keep in mind is what blocking did we decide on, so you’re mind is all scrambled with the blocking and the lines.”
Because there are two MFA plays this year, both plays have to share the Wells-Metz Theatre space. This means that, instead of getting to perform eight shows, Sagendorph will only get to perform four times as her character, she said.
“Every time I’m on stage is gonna count,” Sagendorph said. “It’s really going to have to mean something because it’s one out of four.”
When the cast parted for spring break, Sagendorph said she was excited to spend some time learning her lines for the final draft of the script.
When the cast came back, Sagendorph said, they all had a new energy to work on the show.
“For me specifically, I think because I was so excited, I just wanted to do the show because we were so close,” Sagendorph said. “I just wanted to dive right back into it.”
Opening night, she stayed near the curtain backstage even though she wasn’t performing in the first few scenes.
“It’s hard for me to sit in a dressing room because then I feel like I’m Lauren, the actor, waiting to go on,” Sagendorph said. “But if I can do my exercises, stretch or do yoga in my little Yankee land and I can hear the characters, it puts me in a different head zone.”
While she said she took time to relax herself physically, Sagendorph also took the time to think about her character before she stepped onto the stage.
“I’m going into this detail and thinking about this journey, and then I start getting really excited and start feeling the character,” Sagendorph said. “Then literally within the last 10 seconds before I’m supposed to go on stage, I feel nervous every time.”
When the curtain closed at the end of the night and the actors left the stage, Sagendorph felt energized but a little bit sad because she knew she would only be able to be Yankee three more times, she said.
The Sunday after her opening night, Sagendorph sat in one of the lounges near the theater department’s rehearsal rooms. Reflecting on what happened during the show Friday night, she could not keep a smile off her face as she reminisced and looked forward to her three upcoming shows.
“That was an insane feeling,” Sagendorph said. “I will never forget that moment of walking on stage and looking around and seeing people in the third balcony leaning over to hear me speak.”
