Act in a Play

“Just had a beautiful experience doing a staged reading a couple days ago - this was my second time reading this play (first reading was in October) and it's just me and one other actor with our director [...] I got to cry for that one big emotional scene but I also was able to cry at an earlier scene where the emotion made sense, but it hadn't moved through me at the first reading or during any rehearsal. I mean to say this second staged reading felt deeper, truer, and I tried more to feel the character between the written lines. Letting authentic emotion move through you like that always feels so liberating. We performed largely for older folks who would've been alive during the time the play takes place so it felt important to me to take care with the material and to do it justice. Both myself and the other actor got praise afterwards and a couple people came up to me and said they were moved to tears and I acted very naturally.”

“For instance, I’m in a show right now. (When am I ever not in a show, am I right?) Tonight was the first night that I put my script down and delivered my lines completely from memory. My script is my security blanket, I will hold it until the last possible second even if I’m not actually reading from the book in my hand. It’s a real crutch. So, tonight I put the book down. And it was terrifying. I was anxious all day. Even though there was a support system – our stage manager had the script in front of her and I could say the word “Line” at any time, at which time she would tell me what line I had forgotten – I still didn’t want to do poorly. I didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of my well prepared colleagues who didn’t make the mistakes I made. Obviously, I love to overthink things. But I took the risk, I swallowed the fear and I did it. And it was fine.”