The Chief and I got home from Mom's funeral Thursday afternoon, giving me all of about 2 1/2 hours to pull together all my theater stuff (make-up, hair curling supplies, shoes, tights, jewelry...) and get to the theater for the preview performance. It was very nerve-wracking: a quick drill for the 4 "garland girls" of the processional bit at the top of Act II, so I missed vocal warm-ups, and of course one of my 2 tiny solo lines is the first solo line in the show. I hadn't laid eyes on the set until about 1/2 hour before downbeat, hadn't tried on my costumes or done my hair & make-up or worked with the props. It didn't help that I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I don't usually get nervous before that first downbeat, but having missed essentially all of tech week, I was a nervous wreck as we waited to go on.
I felt like a flake all weekend, had to really work to concentrate on what I was doing, but at least 2 or 3 people who knew my situation said they never would've guessed there was anything wrong. In fact, at Saturday's cast party the MD thanked me, said "we could use more like you." He noted that I was "up there singing your heart out, smiling, really getting into it." I guess I'm getting good at this acting thing if I can fool people into thinking I knew what I was doing. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment