High School is tough. Even tougher if you move from an overcrowded city to a rural community when you're 15, sophomore year. The phrase "culture shock" does not even begin to describe what I felt.
I'm an art-oriented person. My new high school was so small, it didn't even have an orchestra. After reading yesterday's post, you should understand how devastating this was to me. I continued to take private lessons, but it wasn't the same as playing with a group.
It was at this time that I began testing the waters in other avenues of creative craft. I joined the Newspaper Staff as a movie reviewer, I wrote poetry and read a lot of classic literature, studied playwriting and screenwriting, and tried my hand at acting.
Not sure why a school that doesn't have an orchestra offered a class in acting, but it did. And I took it. And I excelled at it.
This was a surprise for me, though. I was painfully shy until after I graduated. In fact, it wasn't until I started spending more time with the man who would end up being my husband that I started to open up more socially. (Yes, you can blame Joe for my current boldness.)
As I said, I studied the craft, and in doing so, I learned that there are many, many actors out there who were and still are very shy. So I figured, if they could do it, so could I. But still, every time I got up on stage, even after months of rehearsals, it scared the snot out of me.
Senior year I landed a lead role in the school play, Crimes of the Heart, as Lenny, the oldest of three sisters. This is a very popular show, and had been made into a movie not long before I played in the stage version. If you're not familiar with it, it starts out with Lenny (that would be me) ALONE on stage for about the first five-ten minutes. Anyone who has a fear of public speaking will understand why that is a big deal.
I opened the show. Every night. By myself. Can you say performance anxiety?
The great thing about a stage, though, is that when you look out into the dark audience, you don't really see faces. You see an amorphous blob of different shades of black. You hear the audience, but you don't quite see them. For me, that was enough to get over my fears and play my part the best that I could.
I found a clip of what looks like a local theater group (not high school) doing Crimes of the Heart. This scene is in the first Act. Chick is the woman with the black hair... she leaves after a minute, then it's just Lenny and Doc.
As I was watching this clip--amazingly!--I remembered all my lines. After *coughs* years. Wow.
And now for a fun fact, before you watch this. There is a part where Lenny walks to the stove to pour herself some coffee. In this clip she doesn't actually pour the coffee (not sure why, because it's in the script that she pours it). I will never forget this.
NUMBER ONE REASON WHY ACTORS MUST LEARN TO IMPROVISE: THINGS GO WRONG, AND YOU'RE ON STAGE (LIVE!). THE SHOW MUST GO ON.
The second night of our show, I went to the prop stove and picked up my prop coffee pot to pour a fake cup of coffee, and the pot handle FELL OFF. One of the screws had come loose (probably from all those damn rehearsals), and the whole thing decided to fall apart DURING THE SHOW.
ARGH!
But the show went on. I improvised... said something like, "Oh, well, maybe I wasn't in the mood for coffee," and continued with the scene.
The guy who played Doc goes backstage before I had to, and as soon as I went backstage, he just looks at me and busts out laughing, and we're both like, "Did that really just happen?" The stagehand (who may or may not have had a major crush on me) found me backstage, too, just to say how awesome it was that I pulled that off, and of course, apologize his little heart out for giving me a faulty prop. Then later, my director says to me, "Way to go!" Apparently, she just about had a heart attack when she saw the handle fall off, and thought I would freak and forget my lines or something.
The number one comment I received from people in the audience that night after the show was about that stupid coffee pot falling apart in Act One. Haha. Good times.
~Lydia
LOL I just read the part about e-stocks for the first time.
ReplyDeleteRemembering things like this can be good inspiration for other things in life. I sometimes remember good drum performances I had (both in school band and garage bands). Playing the drums gave me tangible evidence that I was actually good at something. I have always loved writing, but I didn't always know if I was actually any good. The confidence gained from performing definitely helped me in other things.
Nice one on the ad lib, too! hehe
Great ad lib!
ReplyDeleteI took a speech class and did lots of drama work to get over my stagefright so I know well the sensation you describe. I found that drama was a lot easier. You know what you're supposed to say, at least. Once I got the first line out, I was fine.
Speech/debate was different because I was responsible for the message. Nowhere to put the blame if it sucked. The things I learned in Speech, though, I used through my entire academic career. Basic speech structure extrapolates very well to writing in general:
1. Pick a theme and introduce it early. You lose the audience if they can't figure out what your point is.
2. Back up your thesis with multiple examples in the body of your work (SHOW, don't TELL)
3. Conclude your speech. Sounds basic, but it's pretty hard. Wrap everything up so it's satisfying for the listener. Conclusion should tie back to the thesis/theme and feel, well, finished.
I didn't move cities, but I did transfer from one school to another my sophomore year. The school I left had a K-12 student body population that was the size of my high school graduating class. And I loved it from day one. Lots more variety than the stifling little private school I transferred from. I cannot imagine trying to move in the other direction!
Good examples, guys! Thanks for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I didn't mess up the scene by laughing when that happened. No laughing allowed in that particular scene. It was a "crying" scene. (well, actually, most of my scenes were overdramatic tearjerkers)
This reminded me of one of our dress rehearsals. The character Babe (the youngest sister) has to pull out a saxophone at one part and play ONE note. Just one little note. Also, it was another crying scene for me. Very serious.
During rehearsal, she went to play the note and ABSOLUTELY NO SOUND CAME OUT. I just looked across the stage at her, her eyes all bugging out cause she's blowing into this sax with all her might and NOTHING is happening, and I COMPLETELY LOST IT.
Then, we both lost it. We sat on stage laughing for about ten straight minutes, and the director was horrified. This was one of our final rehearsals and she's like, "You can't stop the show to laugh, guys." But everyone else was rolling. I heard snickers coming from backstage, and the stagehand was in the lighting booth (spotlight on the two girls who can't act, please!) with his face in his hands.
Well, it is quite different when you KNOW it's NOT a rehearsal. Somehow, you get through it and just improvise... and save the laughing for when you're safely backstage.
It's funny how similar we are, Lydia. I'm an actor too and like you I was painfully shy when I was younger.
ReplyDeleteI think that part of what makes shy people good actors is they're shyness. They're not comfortable with everyone looking at them but when they're acting they're not themselves, they're characters. I used to find that so liberating and it made me take risks and be intense when I was acting.
My way of getting over stage fright was: 1. Ignore it. And 2. Get sucked into my characters life. That dealt with my stage fright issues and that buzz at the end after a successful performance - there's nothing like it!
I miss acting.
Jai
I'm glad you didn't become an actress. You play your real part of hot wife and good mother too well to be wasting your talent on Broadway. ;)
ReplyDelete