God's Favorite... who knew?!

Well, my play begins its 4-day run tomorrow night. FINALLY! Tonight's final dress rehearsal went well. I almost missed a line tonight. But it's hard to mistake EVERYONE onstage looking directly at me as a cue that it's my turn to speak. LOL. Yeah actually NOT LAUGHING when someone ad libs or the lines get all messed up... THAT'S the hard part. How do you practice NOT laughing... in a comedy?! Too funny.

I made several discoveries through this adventure. Being new to drama, and the cast & crew members, I took my typical lone wolf approach. What I was surprised to learn is that live drama is like a team sport. I thought I only had to know my lines & cues. Eventually I learned how to "save" a scene when an actor forgets their line or skips a whole page of script... team work. Plus you REALLY can't afford to get down about anything because the kind of performance that's demanded requires every ounce of confidence one can muster. Being a hockey parent to a dramatist wouldn't pass in the real world. Is being a hockey parent ever acceptable? Because I have so few lines, I spend at least an hour waiting backstage. When I come off after NOT executing my lines flawlessly, it's harder to shake it off than throwing an interception in football. In football I don't have any time to dwell on my mistake. If I don't pick my own spirits up immediately I'll keep throwing interceptions... uh which has happened. I learned to purge my memory so that I forget the imterception & move on... to the point where I can get to the end of a game and not fully remember what happened. No fear of that in drama. I exit the stage & sit in my dressing room pummeling myself over botching 1 of my 12 lines. Brutal. Another weird thing that I discovered tonight-- I get nervous the first few seconds before I'm on stage... and want to laugh. Yes, I've had a nervous laugh for years. When I'm in tense situations or am feeling uncomfortable, I giggle. It can be rather annoying. My first stage entrance tonight found me smiling ridiculously in a desperate attempt to reign myself in. Once I'm out there for a few seconds the nervosity subsides. One of the actors, Mark, helped me figure out a strategy-- focus on another actor onstage... really soak up whatever they're saying. That works unless... I'M THE ONE WHO'S SUPPOSED TO BE TALKING. In which case, I struggle through going blank in my shining moments of the play. FREAKIN' BRUTAL. Oy vay!

I'm not sure how many more times I'll write about how the play goes but I'm glad I did this one. It'll be nice to look back on. I'm REALLY looking forward to Sunday. I'm glad I can't fast-forward life because I enjoyed learning how much of life is so very mental. Plus, even as I play the lone (disgruntled) wolf I REALLY enjoyed soaking up other people's essence... lovely souls. Very fun cast & crew. I'm glad I got to meet them all. GREAT DIRECTOR !!! wink