To be or not to be...

Where to begin....

Wednesday was the preview night for the shows and it was great. What a difference an audience makes.

Thursday was the Opening night with all of the trustees, board members, etc who were invited to the gala opening of the Little Theatre. The audience was good but I was a bit sluggish on my performance in some areas. *shrug* oh well, that's something I was able to work on.

Last night (Friday night) was incredible. The audience was great and it was a really good performance. We had the induction for Alpha Psi Omega (AYO) that night and it was a great time. The skit was HILARIOUS. If you were a WPI theatre person it was even better since you'd be able to get some if not all of the subtle in-jokes and nods to previous theatre at WPI (Passing, Skin of our Teeth, Arsenic and Old Lace, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Prime Time Crime to name a few.) I think I did very well on my lines of Shakespeare and got through the entire thing with only about two line calls the entire time. I did the suicide soliloquy of Hamlet ("To be or not to be..."). It was great to do as it was a nod to my Kindergarden teacher Mrs. Chinzi who always called out when my bus had arrived at the school with "2B or not 2B" since the bus designation was 2B. Secondly it was a nod to my love of Star Trek because of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and if you can't get the connection from simply the title, what are you doing in theatre?

Tonight was both simply ok and trancendant. We had two shows and the 5pm Matinee was an ok audience. They applauded wonderfully at the end and watched intently throughout the show but gave nothing back at all. They were completely cold and minimally responsive. It was hard to push forth a good performance with that but I think I gave a performance I could be proud of.

The Saturday evening (8:30) show was absolutely incredible. I added nuance and energy to the character that I didn't know I had. I was less acting and more channeling. It was incredible minus the one mis-step of mine in forgetting to put my gun in my coat for my second to last scene. I got very tripped up and lost my footing a bit (thankfully most of the audience didn't realize what was going on) and had to figure out how I was supposed to kill "Janice" without having my prop gun. I ended up taking the laptop from her and hitting her over the head with it. A good save, I think. Overall I started the day tired and ended it totally full of energy.

This is why I love theatre, but now time to sleep, time to rest.

Thank you Susan. Thank you Cat. Thank you to everyone in the cast and crew.