Here's some things I learned this summer:
1. I like theatre in the park more than I thought I would. You have to be louder, bigger, and more engaging to the point where you can feel unrealistic, but you have the opportunity to create a world including an audience and the natural setting around you. Adapting the show to any occasion is a great exercise.2. I used to be attracted to dramatic realism because it made me feel alive. More and more I find myself being drawn to physical theatre where I can use my body and engage myself to the fullest extent. Whether it is fighting, rolling, running, or stunts--I want to do it all. Doing so much of this work has also helped me when I return to dramatic realism. It's become much easier for me to physically engage.
3. Comedy is incredibly freeing. There could not be a more perfect time for me to have the opportunity to do comedy in my career. Being pigeonholed in dramas for so long had unknowingly put me in a mental and artistic bind. I was finding it difficult to be organic. Comedy has helped me to relearn what it means to be organic.4. I have so much more to learn about acting Shakespeare. I could fill a book with everything I don't know.
5. Always bring a second pair of contacts to a performance, some contact solution (in the case that you don't have a second pair and your first pair dried out after falling out of your eye and being lost in the grass for ten minutes), never try to do a fight call with one contact unless absolutely necessary, drink too much water to make sure that there is absolutely no chance of you getting heat stroke during a performance, learn to control the urge to vomit (in the case that you get heat stroke anyway), and remember to never forget your phone on a strange island park after dark when your phone battery is dead and your ferry is leaving. If you do lose your phone, be happy that there are good people in the world that will mail it to you at their earliest convenience.
6. Theatre is most fun when everyone you're working with has a passion for the work and a love for each other. Don't take the instances that this actually happens for granted, because you'll miss it when you aren't so lucky to experience it on the next show.7. Pick-up rehearsals may seem pointless, but an actor shouldn't belittle any opportunity to look over the script and rehearse a show before showing it to an audience when time has passed. It keeps everything fresh and reminds you to do your homework.
8. I loved working on a show with a six week run. I would have been happy to continue doing the show because I loved my part so much. I was worried at the beginning of summer that I might get tired or bored in a show that ran so long--it never happened.9. I really loved traveling to new spaces. There was something dynamic and exciting about literally bringing theatre to people instead of making people come to the theatre. I loved the feeling of giving something back to the community with a free show and a location near everyone. I think I would really love touring theatre.
10. As strange as it is to have to talk to people after the show and accept compliments from strangers that sometimes seem like they're only said because you're standing in front of them and they can't get around you without speaking, I enjoyed connecting with an audience after the show. It was exciting to hear people talk about loving theatre and Shakespeare. People would tell me stories about the first time they'd seen the show, or the time they were in the show, or about their favorite shows and how so and so reminded them of it. There is nothing more heartwarming to me than being able to share my love for something with the people around me. What a wonderful experience.
11. Doing theatre at night in the dark really makes you appreciate stage lights. And run lights. And lanterns that light your costume tent.12. Sometimes the best shows seem to be when actors have people they know in the audience. I think the theory behind this is that you want the people you love to love watching you. In this case: imagine that every audience for a show is made up of people you love (because you should love everyone that comes to see any show you're in) and that they all love you (which they must because they came to the show you're in to watch you, right?). Now every show is the best show.
13. Always thank a stage manager that knows how to use Febreze .
I had the most amazing time this summer learning about Shakespeare, meeting Seattle for what felt like the first time, and doing what I'll consider my first professional show. I'll never take being in a theatre for granted, and I'll always appreciate an audience that will sit in the sun to roast while watching a free show. I spent the summer with friends and new family. I don't know how to sum up the summer in this blog post, but I know that I'll remember how much fun I had bruising myself, smashing mosquitoes, and chasing butterflies.
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| Chasing Winifred |
Hear about my crazy weekend next!
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