Being on Stage

I had the opportunity to get on stage and perform twice last weekend in two very different situations. One was the culmination of these past two weeks work as we presented The Apology my play about incest I was cast in at Roxbury Repertory Theatre's Six Playwrights in Search of a Stage one act play festival thing. The other was earlier this evening with my improv troupe, Rebels Without Applause as part of Improv Boston's Geek Week festival as we presented our (and particularly my own) virgin foray into performing long form improv. Both were the culmination of weeks of preparation and rehearsal, both presented challenges and both were unqualified successes. Well, except for one qualification, in my mind there were things which could have gone better about both of them, despite the fact that they were very well received and practically I performed to the best of my abilities... but not to my very absolute best. Which is OK. But that's the theme of this post, I'm coming back around to the theme of a previous post, satisfaction. Being satisfied with your work.

Because the thing is, as an actor, once you put something out in the world you don't get to do revisions on it like an author or even a painter or film maker gets to do. In the case of stage acting, you might get to try it again. But each individual performance stands alone as a piece, even if it's a piece of a greater organism, the show itself and the run of performances. In the case of these two events though, it's just one show. I'm sure I'll get to perform long form again in the future. And who knows, maybe this play will come back but I don't know that the playwright would contact us about reprising our roles if it did. So for the time being, I just have to be happy with the work I did.

Allow me to obsess a little bit. In both cases, I felt like in rehearsal we were able to achieve certain things that in performance we had the facsimile of but didn't exactly achieve. This is because live theatre is live theatre, it's different every time. In the case of our improv show, I sort of felt like it could have congealed a little better. But there was a major difference between our rehearsals and our performance... for the performance it was a packed full room of people. Laughing people. Quite a bit, actually. They really enjoyed our performance. And even if it was a little more chaotic then in some of our rehearsals, it was really really funny. And hey that's what it's all about.

The other, much more serious performance was also successful. It was strange performing in a straight play for the first time since March and Swimming in the Shallows that we only had one chance to perform it live, whereas with Swimming we had like sixteen. And of course, over that many performances the piece really evolves and even if you don't get something one night, you'll get another thing the next night and another thing after that but then not this, etc. But nope, The Apology had it's brief time on stage and now it's over. That was also successful. But I do wish we'd had a longer run, because I can't escape the feeling I could have done more with it. I mean man, what an intense piece and what an intense arc to go from just hangin' out with my Mom to "oh hey I spoke to my older sister, so my older brother raped her repeatedly when we were children? Why didn't you do something" etc and granted it was much more intense and much less flippant. It was a great acting challenge, and I had some great people taking it on with me. And then there were the other pieces, all of which were delightful and all the new folks I was able to meet and all the old ones I reconnected with. In short, a great experience.

Next up is that reading I've alluded to periodically, the culmination of months of work on the writer's part and us actors meeting several times over the past few months to break down the script and give him feedback, yes ladies and gentleman THE LAST JEWS are coming to Boston Playwright's Theater this Monday. And can I be honest? Being on stage with Bobbie Steinbach is a great opportunity, and despite the fact that she is anything but intimidating in person I can't help but be a little intimidated getting on stage with someone of her caliber. You know what I mean? In the meantime, let's just say my role has been expanded and I have some work to do. We had a rehearsal this past Monday, and another one on Friday primarily focusing on the scene where I do most of the talking between the playwright, my scene partner and myself. Oh and in the meantime, Three Sisters is about to enter full speed ahead mode as we go up in a month. So that's plenty going on!