Week #16: Pros and Cons.

My 2016

Week #16

Pros and Cons.

So, it's safe to say that 90% of my past week has been consumed with our production of Love's Labour's Lost, which is opening on Tuesday. 2 days! It's crazy to think about how much work has gone into this show, especially in the last week. The theatre department has been working like CRAZY to get everything ready, and it's hard to believe that opening night is almost here.

As I was thinking back over the past week, I realized that there were a lot of highs....but also a lot of lows. So I decided to make a pros and cons list. Cause why not.

In my Theories of Performance class, we watched an interview with British actor Tom Hiddleston. Most of you probably know him for his role as Loki in Thor/The Avengers, but he's actually an incredibly gifted stage actor. Near the end of the interview, an audience member asked him if he had any advice for future actors, and his response has stuck with me all week:

"I believe that actors are in the business of truth and holding the mirror up to nature. It's our job to represent humanity in all of its virtue and fallibility and frailty and honesty and complexity and contradiction. The thing about acting is you are using all your experience and all your emotion and all of your thoughts and feelings to represent just that...human beings.

 So I suppose my simple advice is: Love your life. I only say that because your life is what you have to give. Sometimes, if you have a good day or a bad day, that day might be what you need to call upon to play a particular part.

'This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.'"

I mean, wow. 'Pro.'

That night, we got out of rehearsal around 10:00, and a bunch of us decided to go to Applebee's on a Monday because we just weren't ready for the week and wanted half off appetizers. Despite the awfulness of waking up the next morning, I was SO glad we decided to do that. It was a much needed fun time. 'Pro.'

Later that week I found myself working during shop hours, and I proceeded to pre drill my shirt. As in a pre drill got stuck in my shirt and ripped it apart. #mylife (And yes, that counts as a 'con.')

I've also been spending a lot of time dealing with actors. (You're most likely thinking, 'She's an actor, right?') As of right now, I don't really consider myself an actor. I haven't done anything since fall quarter, and right now I'm an AD/Director, so acting isn't really in my radar. As a non-actor, sometimes it's tricky and stressful to handle actors. Anyone in theatre will tell you that actors are some of the most insecure and needy people on the face of the earth. I never thought that was true until I saw things form the other side...let me tell you, it can be frustrating. Definite 'con.'

However, despite the several 'cons' happening around me, this week ended on a positive note. Most of us spent two entire days at the theatre, working on the set for Love's Labour's Lost. I ended up making some new friends and getting to know other ones even better. It was a surprisingly pleasant weekend, despite the insane amount of work going on. It was a wonderful 'pro.'

This week was a roller coaster of exhaustion, friendship, quality time, sawdust, brown paint, and taking notes. And that is actually a great combination.

Everything's about to get real, my readers, and I'm ready for it. Finally.