That was amazing!
I always forget the rush I get when performing... Anything, even if it sucks, is just so much fun.
Tonight was the first presentation of A Midsummer Night's Dream and I played Hermia. We messed up a lot of Act III and a lot of our lines were flubbed; I started coughing during the final bit and was about to cry... but my costume was amazing! And people were actually enjoying it! Most everyone I talked to thought it was really funny and well done - granted, a lot of them knew that I'd been sick for the past week so they let me off the hook (I guess that audience forgiveness schtick was true, never realized...)
I am having such a bipolar feeling about the performance... I know that I was intensely angry and spiteful when I first came to rehearsal, but once we got down to the final minutes beforehand I felt so incredibly happy and we looked amazing [the props were great too! I don't know where they came up with half the stuff though...] Then throughout the play I was sweating bullets about where we were and what lines we had missed. But finally, at the end, so many people were there to celebrate us that it just felt amazing and great and wonderful and I can't wait to do it again tomorrow! Ah!
Well, I must now rest my voice again because that cough set me back light years on the road to recovery. We go in at 12 tomorrow and are definitely going to go over Act III. Hopefully tomorrow's shows are going to be a million times better - I just need to have water and tea nearby at all times!
Also, the photograph is of Hugo and I in costume [courtesy of Elaina], practicing Act V. At that time we had too few chairs and no replacements, so I sat on his lap. Not awkward for me, but I think he was floundering under my weight... Curse you, weak men who can't support average-sized women!
Check out some more posts featuring my photography.
If you're interested in more theater-related posts, check out the photographic journey of my production of Speak and it's write-up.