What is it about theater that sucks people in? And what is it about some people that they're willing to spend hours upon hours of their free time to mount a community theater production?
I was bit by the theater bug early on. I played Eeyore in the elementary school production of Winnie The Pooh. My best friend Stacy played piglet, and her mother made our full-body felt animal suits. I sweated beneath all that grey under the Creek Valley Elementary School cafeteria lights, and duly pouted my "woe is me" lines. After the show, the student counselor came up and congratulated me on my authentic portrayal of a bitter depressive. A star was born.
In high school I had a knack for getting the part of understudy, only to have the lead bail out of the show or get thrown out for not taking her part seriously (I swear I had nothing to do with this). It was thus that I was cast as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker. It was a big part, involving some singing (which I don't do), as well as being carried up a ladder by one of the other actors (I was no light-weight at the time). But I was determined to pull it off.
Our director was determined to make this the best show the high school had ever scene. She would have me and Helen Keller over for dinner (steamed cauliflower and broccoli covered with non fat sour cream and salsa - her secret recipe for staying slim, she told us) and then go through our scene work including a lot of the hand signing, and individual character development. It worked - we bonded, and we got to know our lines - or in Helen Keller's case, grunts - really well.
Then two things happened. Helen Keller was an avid Grateful Dead fan, and a couple of concerts came up that she simply couldn't resist - she disappeared for a few days during the final rehearsals. Her understudy was given half the performances as punishment (for Helen, or for the understudy, I don't know).
Then, in the last two days of dress rehearsals, I got sick. Very sick. It was some sort of Asian flu that was sweeping through, and it swept right through my lower intestines. Overnight I lost 5 lbs, which thrilled my teenage self no end. But I couldn't keep anything down, including water, and I had a fever of 104.
The director was leaving frantic messages on the answering machine for my mom, saying we had to make a call on whether or not to go on with the show. My mom was no stage mother, but still she knew how much this meant to me, and to the school. What to do?
Thank goodness for 1980s health care. She took me into our doctor, and explained the urgency of the situation. He gave me three shots - one for nausea, one for diahrrea and one for dizziness. For the next week I would drink nothing but Gatorade (which I love to this day). When I arrived at the theater, they placed garbage cans at each of the stage exits - just in case I needed them. I kept a pack of Tums in my skirt pocket. And for the next four nights, we wowed the crowds. Standing ovations every night. It was the last play I was ever in.
So what is it about theater that I had to go on, even when I was THAT sick? Is it the fame? The glory of being the high school lead? And what is it that continues to send people back to theater as adults to put on productions of "Harvey," or "Arsenic and Old Lace?" What are we looking for? What do we find? Is it important?
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Comments: 8
In my case, I find it fun. When I direct our community theater one act each year, it is most important to me that the cast has fun. It is volunteer, it is recreation. It has to be fun.
This year I went back on the stage for the first time in ten or so years...I got hooked again. It was so much fun.
Of course, we do comedies and there is great pleasure making people laugh by being someone other than oneself. (smile)
ps. It's a "muckumentary" written and directed by Summer Hagen*, filmed at the family cabin west of Cloquet.
*Summer is an actress who worked in the Twin Cities and is now located in NYC. The film is intended for the web...she thinks it will take four months or so to edit.
I'll keep you posted. Thanks for asking!
For years I could be in plays, but not speak publicly as myself. If I had someone else's words, I was okay. Go figure. I'm better about speaking as myself now that I am older, another go figure.
Also I wanted to add that Summer Hagen is starring in the You Tube series "We Need Girlfriends" episodes 8 through 11.
Well, I like Cynthia's answer, "...it's an opportunity to take a vacation from oneself and be someone else." but it makes me wonder about the very community nature of it. It is FUN to hang out with other people. It is REWARDING to work towards a goal. It is RELAXING to be engaged in something other than work or the house or what-have-you.
Fun, rewarding, relaxing... isn't that what most people are looking for from their time?