Charlie's Aunt ... and my first kiss?

It's been a long time since I've been this saddened by the end of a show. At ISB, the end just meant I was done being berated by Miss Hanson for a couple of weeks. It meant it was time to get ready for the next show. It didn't matter what it was. It was going to be a bad show anyway. But here, I learned what theatre is really supposed to be.

College theatre isn't easy. It started at auditions. I felt my heart beat fast as I realized there were only four female roles and about forty girls auditioning. Stressed, I did what I could and, to my surprise, got a role! Then things got really stressful. We put this show on in a very small number of weeks. For each scene, we had one rehearsal to block it. Dr. K, my director, is very specific about blocking. He would stop us every other line or so and tell us what he wanted us to do. To my surprise, however, even though he had very very specific things he wanted us to do, he still left the character to us. We had total creative freedom as actors. That felt great. After our blocking rehearsal, we would run it once. The next day we moved onto the next scene. Once we were done blocking, we moved straight into Act runthroughs. By then we were expected to be off script. After a week of running the acts, we were into full runthroughs. Needless to say, we were all a bit panicked by the fast pace that all of this happened at. But...it was fun! I loved the whirlwind of theatre that surrounded me through the whole process!

With one possible exception, the cast was amazing. Since there were so few of us, we very quickly became the best of friends. We laughed together as Anita mentioned how odd it was to help her ex-boyfriend into his skirt. We watched out for each other and made sure no one walked home alone, even if it was just from Alex's apartment across the street. We jokingly teased each other for anything that we possibly could. And we spent hours playing Murder in the Dark in the Blackbox. I haven't had a cast that unified since, well, ever.

And the show! Holy cow, what a show! It was a show of real professional quality! Our closing night we felt the audience was so dead compared to the other nights. In all actuality, at ISB we would have been thrilled with that 'dead' audience. The other three nights I was afraid we were going to have some casualties from too much laughter! They laughed at EVERYTHING! I even got laughs and I'm not a funny character!

And I can't even describe with how professionally this theatre runs. It's insane. When I get backstage, there are always people waiting for me with props, to make sure my skirt is on straight, or to do whatever I may ask. If I try to help backstage, I end up being in the way. Everyone has a job and everyone follows that job. I act. Then I get out of the techie's hair. It's kind of weird. If something goes wrong, you mention it and it's fixed without hesitation. I say, "I'm having a bit of a hard time reaching the wrap when I go backstage. Could we just hang it on the other side of the cage so it's closer to me?" and they do better. They assign someone to make sure I have the wrap. Cathleen, the costume lady, says she wants the stage mopped before the show because the trains on the skirts are getting dirty, and the girl in charge of set crew says, "My crew come in an hour early tomorrow and we'll mop it" and all of them agree without question.



It was so sad to watch them tear apart one of the most incredible sets I've ever acted on board by board leaving us on an empty stage.



These costumes are insane. That red one weighs, like, ten pounds. You can't see very well because of the angle of the pictures, but we're all wearing insane bustles. Those are surprisingly hard to work with. I slammed mine in the door twice.



Getting ready. My hair was such a process. It took about two and a half hours. First Amanda (the girl ratting my hair in the first picture) got it all wet and blow dried it so that it would stand up at the roots. Then we ratted the ever living daylights out of it. That took FOREVER! It had to be super ratted so that it would have enough body to fit the time period and so that it would be strong enough to hold Matthew Jonathan (my hair piece). Then she would curl each of those little bits at the front. We would spray it with hair spray until it was soaked and hold the curling iron in there for about a minute. It was very monotonous.

They gave us a list of funny quotes by my director. I'm afraid I'm going to lose my list so I'm going to write my favorites here. Cuz, dang. A lot of them are really funny.

"I want to see your face as my face, okay?"
"Act like your undies are riding up your rear-end or something."
"What are you doing? Making love on stage?"
"You're sophisticated objects on drugs"
Nothing makes sense! It doesn't make sense! Make sense?"
"You're only as good as your best mucker"
"Be bushy eyed tomorrow or I'll be ready to kick some hind-enders!"
"Trust me. I've worn lipstick before"
"Dude, Frisco. It's a toast."
"It's too rumbly and bumbly and rich. It's like God having a cold"
"Pork chop? Cot port? No, Cork pop. Good"
"We all need some sleepy peepy deepy deepies"
"Evencio and Alex, you look like two wasps ready to mate!"
"Show me enchanting! No, that's not enchanting! I'll show you enchanting!"
"You just made my blocking look elegant!" (that was directed at me!)
"Well, do this!" *suddenly picks Tasha up, spins her around, and makes kissing noises*
"Adam, you smell good again."
"Be fat and pregnant!" (to Alex. Yes, Alex is a boy. Which plays into the next quote)
"Alex! Put your skirt down and stop playing with yourself!"
"I can see you are someon who will date Jack, not sell Girl Scout cookies! and they're not good Girl Scout cookies either."
"Knock it off or I'll have to teach you both how to stage kiss! You can decide who goes first."
"You look like Mother Oats or something. You're so cute it's disgusting" (also directed at me)




Now, the story of my first kiss

It all began on opening night. The show ends with Alex and I standing in a spotlight right after he announces that I've agreed to marry him. As the light faded with us staring awkwardly at each other, it became painfully clear to all involved that the audience was expecting a kiss. Not having the kiss made the end of the show too weak. It needed to be there. So, after the show, Alex and I had a very professional conversation between two actors about adding a kiss. We both agreed it would help the integrity of the show and he told me, "I'll talk to Dr. K tomorrow. If he's all right with it, we'll work it before the show."

The next day, I'm sitting in the dressing room having my hair done when I hear Alex's distinctive knock on the door. After establishing that everyone was decent, he walks in, grabs me, kisses me, and says "That's gunna happen on stage."

The entire room falls silent as everyone turns slowly to look at the two of us. After a pause, I say "My first kiss...how romantic." Suddenly everyone explodes. All the girls start punching him and telling him what a jerk he is. He starts freaking out and apologizing "I'm so sorry! I didn't know!" and I stand in the center of the chaos laughing. Cuz, dang. It was funny.