Sunday, April 26, 2009

"All The World's A Stage"




What is my purpose? What do I love more than anything else in the world? What makes my soul sing? Performance! To jump into the mind of a juicy character, to figure her out. Her story, her song, her family, her talent, her weakness her faith. What makes her tick? To understand her in relation to the other characters in the story, in relation to the overall theme. What is author trying to convey? To dance that waltz closely with the audience and take them for a dynamic tango for 30 min or an hour or two hours. Then go home and do it again the next day with a whole new group of eager minds.


There is nothing like the theater! I love the smell of the dust backstage in an old theater house. Feeling the old wood, old furniture, old costumes and old props. Looking at the ropes that draw that heavy curtain from the wings. Looking at the old yellow bulbs that illuminate the dressing rooms. To feel the heat they give off from being on for hours and hours. Little mirrors with designated trinkets claiming space by cast members. Carved names of past shows in chairs and dressing tables from cast members. Old untouched green room with little to no style but home for cast & crew before & after rehearsal, during intermission. Old cracked cabnits filled with coffee mugs & tea cups. There are vending machines, old tables & chairs and dusty couches. Black marble floors or old carpets. Florescent bright lights.


Then there is center stage. The hottest spot on the theater. Many a cast will pray around this special area before a show. Many a soloist will be spotlighted there for some dynamic moment in a piece. I like to go there in every theater I work in. When everyone else is in their own world. I visit center stage and look out to the seats, look up to the lighting riggs, look to the back booth where all the cues for the show are called, look to the wings where dancers, cast members, scene changers, stage managers, prop tables all wait for their moments to add to what is going on onstage. I look down to the pit where the empty music stands hold the portable lights that illuminate the scores that the musicians play from. I look to the exit signs where ushers in black with flashlights and programs will stand to usher people to their seats, bathrooms & concession stands. I look up to the shut off spotlight that will follow a many dancer or character or zoom in on a moment like a close up in a film, making the audience realize that they need to focus in on this part because it is the whole point of the piece.


Yes there is nothing like taking my spot on an empty stage in an empty theater. Closing my eyes to realize I'M LUCKY TO BE LIVING MY DESTINY. I am fulfilling my purpose, my passion. Shakespeare reminds us that all the world's and empty stage and we are are mere characters playing our parts. What a juicy part I've landed. I plan to play it with elegance, grace and class till the lights of my world and curtain draw close for my finale. Even then ill get to reprise my role and play along side all the greats for all eternity.