Today was an adventure. Did you know, tomorrow I'll be playing guitar in the 8th grade talent show of Martin Luther King Junior K-8 School in Dorchester? It's true, an acting buddy of mine referred me his fellow actor who teaches there, was putting together a talent show and needed a guitar player. And thus I took a train and a bus into Dorchester.
On the way there, I thought about my relationship to that part of Boston. What relationship? Well, when I was born my mother taught at a program for teenage mothers in Dorchester. While they were having babies and joining the program as a means of accessing resources and staying in school with their infants, my mother had me. I remember as a kid, seeing pictures of myself as an infant with her students. Later, she told me a few horror stories about the various drugs particularly crack which was in an epidemic phase in many parts of the United States. But some inspiring one's as well. I'll tell you more at another date.
It was kind of an adventure getting to the school. I consulted Google Maps, who told me there was a bus I could catch from Umass Station which I then missed by about 30 seconds when my train ran late. Using Google Maps and Next Bus I was able to triangulate my way back into a route to the school. After a ten minute walk and a five minute bus ride then another five minute walk... I got the school, and met the kids I would be performing with. What song will I be performing with them? Who You Are by Jessie J, that's what. It was really cool getting to hang out with these kids even just for a little bit, and hear them sing and get to watch the process of them rehearsing together even just a little bit, working out Man in the Mirror and the other numbers their performing, realizing "oh yeah these kids are pretty good, they are just 14". It was also kind of fascinating seeing into their anxieties about performing for their peers. I mean, for me at this point it's pretty much automatic when the show starts you go on, no matter where you might be at and I've been in some plays where there's been reason to question where everybody was at. But being 14 and singing, SINGING in front of EVERYBODY, I'd forgotten that. Not that I did much singing when I was 14. Strangely, I can kind of identify with them through my guitar playing, which I haven't done a lot of in front of people. Uncle Vanya was definitely the most I'd ever done, and actually one of the most defined ways in which I grew from that experience was in how much more comfortable I am playing music for people.
Anyway, the performance is tomorrow, and the more I think about it, the more I look forward to having the opportunity to connect with the kids on stage and in the audience. I mean, that's what art is all about, right? Something else I haven't done in my 6 or 7 years of guitar playing and general performing has been playing as an accompanist. I did during Marat/Sade, and it was really cool, but that's about it. And I think this will be too.
The other thing that struck me about the experience was realizing that if I weren't so set on being an actor, to the point that I don't really know what else I could do with my life... I could have been a teacher, maybe. A music or theatre or english teacher. I don't know how happy I would be as the person I am today, but what if I'd been a different person? I could see how that could have happened and teaching would be something I'd be OK with, I think.
Anyway, I'll blog more about it after I've actually done it. The reason the title of the post is in Spanish was because today was my first bilingual theatre rehearsal ever! Exciting, right? And very challenging. I mean, it's such a trip, trying to do theatre in another language entirely. Granted, I sort of know some Spanish... but actually not really. It wasn't made easier that everything we went over had been worked previously at a rehearsal I wasn't present for but that was OK I'm a fast learner. Will I be though when it comes to this Spanish stuff? Yeah actually, I hope so. And it will give me a totally different perspective on this process, no doubt. I mean, the first step will be studying the passages in English where the tragedians interact with each other, The Player and of course the pair of the title. Then figuring it out in Spanish. I think it'll be a fun exercise. And I'm already having fun in the role. It's getting late, and I have to get to a performance early in the morning, so this too will have to wait till a future blog. But hey, I'm blogging! Aren't I? I feel pretty good about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment