How are you viewed by a director?

Viewed by Director

I had an interesting conversation this weekend with the director of the upcoming production I am going to be in. We were talking the usual “Hollywood” stuff about movies and actors we both liked, but then he stated something that really caught my attention. He said I had an advantage as an actor due to the fact that I am a male in my mid-30s.

Really?

Then I thought about it. Most men my age are probably married and are working to support a family. Though I dream of the day I can marry the right woman and have children, the reality of the situation is that I made the decision to delay this choice and I guess I am lucky that I did. Sure, I have to endure the ridicule of friends who think I am being flighty and stupid, former co-workers who remain stunned at my decision to leave behind a career, but you want to know what the hardest thing of all to deal with? Not being able to watch football all weekend.

Fantasy football is a hobby many Americans have picked up over the last decade and it really does make Sundays more fun and interesting… especially when your team is in first place like mine. The pain I feel every weekend when I can’t root for my players is what parents must feel when they cannot watch Junior play soccer because they are out of town on a business trip. It’s times like these that try men’s souls. I would ask friends for updates, but I have to stay away from learning whether or not my real favorite team, the Denver Broncos, have won or lost before coming home to watch the Tivo’d version of the game. Trust me when I tell you that my friends, knowing how upset I would be if I knew the result of the game before I got home from rehearsal, BOMB my cell phone with updates. I would call them bastards, except I would absolutely do the same thing to them.

If you have never done a play or theatrical production, then you should know that rehearsals are real “character builders”. In our case, we rehearse in a small space where any extraneous conversation outside of the director and the actors involved in the scene are extremely disruptive and must be kept to a minimum. Except most of the cast really get along so every five minutes the stage manager is yelling at us over and over again to shut up. It gets real old, real fast. There is also the pressure of opening in a little over three weeks without the play being fully blocked. “Blocking”, in case you don’t know, is the planning of action to go along with the words of the script. Plus, there are set changes that need to be planned and assigned. All you budding actors out there should know that one must memorize more than words in a script. A lot of planning and effort go into putting on a successful show! There is a lot of pressure to perform and execute your role effectively. Even if one isn’t the “lead” in a play, a poor performance from a bit player can bring down the entire house of cards. A missed set change here and/or a flubbed line (especially a cue line) there, is disconcerting enough to the audience to “bring them back to reality” and rob them of the entertainment and enlightenment that they paid good money for.

Hmm, hours of planning, hours of practice, hours of study, and a lot of yelling for just a couple of hours of going out and putting on a fun show… maybe I’m not as removed from football as I previously thought.

Have a good week,

Fred