My inspiration for this post came from my dear, longtime blogging friend, Debbie @ Musings by an ND Domer's Mom, who is not only a gifted...
I was talking with a co-worker on Wednesday about an HBO movie we had both seen (Grey Gardens), and was telling him that there is also a musical version of the story which ran on Broadway for a very short time in 2006. It starred Christine Ebersole, who I had gone to acting school with in NYC.
I never saw the show myself, but told him I had read about it online last year.
And I guess he could sense the excitement in my voice by the way I was sharing it, because he suddenly said to me, “Don’t you miss the theater? And do you ever think you’ll go back to it?”
I know that most of you who have been visiting my blog for a while now have read stories about certain shows I've been in, and also various experiences I’ve had while being in the theater. So, I’m sure you can tell that, yes, I do miss the theater at times.
Once an actor, always an actor.
Especially when it comes to the theater.
Once you get a taste of performing live in front of an audience, that taste never goes away. In fact, most screen actors will often return to the stage because they know it’s truly the actors medium.
With acting, once you’ve unleashed your soul to portraying various characters, it becomes like a hunger that begs to be fed.
It’s an odd, yet unbelievably freeing feeling to temporarily place yourself in almost another dimension, while letting go and giving your physical and emotional senses permission to be taken over by the life experiences of someone else.
Acting is literally a spiritual experience.
You must allow yourself to trust in something greater than you, to take you to places you need to go.
It’s one of the most bazaar, yet euphoric feelings in the world.
Acting also sometimes involves bringing your own life experiences of vulnerability, pain and suffering to the surface, and then allowing those feelings to be exposed and expressed through the character.
I didn’t begin to really scratch the surface of acting, until I got older and began living. You can only be as true to a character emotionally, to the degree in which you yourself have lived.
To truthfully convey an emotion, you must be familiar with that emotion.
Therefore, the more you experience life.....the more you bring to acting.
Back in the late 90’s, I decided to take a break from the theater because I knew I needed more time to grow as a person, while investigating other interests in my life. I also took the break because I knew it was time for me to take what I had learned in the theater about letting go and trusting, and apply it to my offstage life.
It was easy for me to let go onstage, but I hadn’t quite learned how to do it in my real life.
Much time has passed since then. I’ve experienced things I never thought I would. Things I had to learn to let go of and trust.
I’ve done this before. Left the theater for many years, and then returned. I seem to need breaks from the theater, to develop and expand as a human being, and then take that back onstage with me.
So, do I think I’ll ever get back to the theater?
Yes, I believe I will. In some capacity.
And just like when I knew it was time to take a break, I will feel in my heart when the time is right for me to return.
I’ll just know.
I will hear the voice of the stage manager over the backstage intercom calling, “Places actors…..”
Wishing you a theatrical weekend everyone!
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