Oh the Drama!

"This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying."

-from Our Town, by Thorton Wilder 

(it seemed fitting for this blog) 

Once upon a time, I was a theater kid.

 For as much as I berated parents who over-schedule their children in last week's post, the truth of the matter is, I myself always had some extra curricular to run off to. Drama was one of them. My friends and I put in ten to sixteen hour days at our high school during the run of any show.

When I started, I don't think I anticipated it becoming as significant a part of my high school experience as it did. My freshman year I was in the chorus for the spring musical production of Once Upon a Mattress. I had a grand time singing songs with everyone else, dancing a little, and simply milling around on stage. I was more a moving part of the scenery than anything else. I anticipated that the rest of my acting career would be spent thusly.

Part of my costume for Once Upon a Mattress

Imagine my surprise when the cast list for Our Town went up sophomore year and it did not say Towns Person Number 3 next to my name, but rather, Mrs. Webb.  For those of your unfamiliar, Mrs. Webb is the main character's mother. I am still convinced that the only reason I got this role was because my boyfriend at the time was cast as Mr. Webb, even though there was at least a one foot height discrepancy between us and we looked ridiculous on stage together. Still, it was the first of many supporting roles I would play.

 Later that year, I played a military recruiter in Rank, an original musical written by Mr. Clark, our director, with music by Mr. Sweeney, the head of our music department, in which a graduating senior class tackle the trials and tribulations of the college application process. That year I was also in a student run production of Impromptu playing Laura, "The Ingenue" (the first and only time I had such a title). Senior year I was Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, followed by the Dark Witch in Dark of the Moon (a star-crossed love story about freaky Appalachian witchcraft- not to be confused with the Pink Floyd album of a similar title, or the upcoming Transformers movie of the exact same title). Chorus roles in other spring musicals were also thrown in the mix.

High school drama introduced me to the wonders of the Educational Theater Guild. Like OM/ DI, Oceanbowl or Show Choir in the days before Glee, this is one of those extra curriculars that consumes large chunks of your time, is a huge deal if you make it to states/ regionals/ nationals, and that no one else has ever heard of or cares about. And just what is ETG you ask?

Competitive Theater.

 Given that this entry has already gone on much longer than I had anticipated, I won't give you the break down of how one gets scored on their acting and tech skills (and because other than the strict time limits for set up, I really can't remember). All you need to know is that my school almost always went to at least States and this was where most of my tech experience came from.

 In college, I *almost* completed a theater minor. I was still actively involved plays, but exclusively as a techie, or "behind the scenes person" in layman's terms. I do miss being on stage from time to time, but not enough to seek out any of the multiple community theater groups contained within the Monadnock region, or commit to weeks of evening rehearsals for what will ultimately amount to only a handful of performances.

I used this book for most of my auditions. Today it was officially retired.