Rockin' The Suburbs Just Like Richard Burbage Did

Thursday, August 9, 2007

The last time I performed on stage in front of an audience I was in my twenties. That was more than four years ago. People have told me that getting back in the swing of things will be like riding a bike and, in the sense that it has made me tired and wheezy, they're right.

It helps that I'm rehearsing a role I've performed before, albeit almost a decade and two children ago. It also helps that at least a few of the people I'm working with are some of the very same I worked with before.

What doesn't help is that my voice, back and knees, none of which were in fantastic shape when they were in any kind of shape at all, are now just that much older and worn out. It also doesn't help that, since turning thirty, I have an almost gravitational compulsion to go to bed at ten o'clock. Do you know how long it's been since I was awake to see the musical guest on Letterman?

This run will be grueling. the show will be put together in a mere eleven rehearsals over only three weeks and will then run, seven shows a week (plus the two my understudy gets on Saturday afternoons) until the middle of November. That adds up to a lot of late nights at the theater. Did I mention I still have a day job too? Well... I do.

There's not a lot of room for me to complain though. I long lobbied to have rehearsals shortened and runs extended back when I was trying to tally as many paid performances and as few unpaid rehearsals as possible. My wish is their command, I suppose. Plus, I'm really enjoying the familiar camaraderie the theater family enjoys.

People there think it's actually funny when I quote John Hughes movies while we're working. Even funnier when I do it with a french accent, for some reason. Good thing too because every voice I do eventually becomes a french accent.

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