Out of the Box

I said to him, "Hey let's go over our scene really quick, before opening." He nodded in agreement and followed me to the center of the stage. The curtains were closed. The auditorium was beginning to fill, and mouths were moving in excitement of what's in store for the night. Behind the curtain, we went over my scene. He probably didn't need the practice but was doing me a favor. We did the scene perfectly down to my exit off the stage. He smiled at me in reassurance for surely he knew I was freaking out on the inside. Before we knew it, the stage manager came out and told us, "Places!" I took my spot, everyone else took there's, and the lights went down. You'd think I'd be going over my lines in my head, but all I could think of was how stupid I had been at the beginning rehearsals.

You're probably thinking that it was my first time on stage, and you'd be wrong. I've been on stage many times in the past and I am no stranger to the stage. However, I considered this particular experience the REBIRTH of life as I knew it. It may sound trite to say it, but there is truth behind it. I've always been a performer but it seemed like for the longest time I was practically deprived of it. I was on stage for music--more or less--but the actual fulfillment of being up there for a theatrical performance was something that I died inside of me. Unless a filling that is not easily understood and there is nothing like it. Ask anyone has experienced it for themself and they well you the same thing. Many would say that acting is just a lie. In all technicality, they are right.

I believe that it is another form of self-discovery and self-development.

Doesn't make sense, right?

How can pretending to be someone else help youIdiscover who you are? It does in the sense that you are stepping outside of circle, out of the box, and you are looking at life and all these different elements of which through the lens of the person you are portraying. There are many who dont understand the joy one may get from acting in a play or musical. That's understandable. However for me, its was a rebirth. That part of me had been dead. Going without, isn't an option.