Acting Up, acting in, and across and through.

This summer, I finally got into the community theatre I've been wishing about for the last....oh who knows.....year? I would get in there to audition and screw it up beautifully. But this time, I must have done okay, because all of a sudden I found myself in a whirlwind of rehearsals and long car rides and dancing and making new friends and seeing old ones and generally having an interesting summer.

Now, however, is opening night. And although it was rocky at first, not knowing much of anyone and yet knowing who they were from past productions, I'm now in love with it. I'm getting into community theatre kinda late for someone who wants to act as a profession, so my way of making up for that is to audition the you-know-what out of those theatres NOW. And yet, I'm not ready for Tom Sawyer to be over so I can audition for the next theatre that comes along. I love the backstage chatter, outrageous makeup and wigs, the costumes, the heat and lights and applause and performance, and opening night gives me the Happy Show Jitters. 

This summer has been a season of firsts for me. For the first time, I'm in a production without at least one of my siblings, and I guess I'll have to get used to that, since Sarah's going into teaching and Abby is only 12. For the first time, I danced in the Heritage Day Parade. For the first time, I hung out all summer with a bunch of public schoolers instead of homeschoolers. For the first time, I rehearsed in a funeral home. For the first time, I had a picture in the newspaper, because I can sing and act and dance-well, dance, in a technical sense.

It's honestly been a bit rigorous and painful. People have a tendency to step on my feet more than others. I've accepted it, at least. People have randomly started bleeding. Just....."I'm bleeding...!" I bought boots and then discovered they were too small. Too late to get others. I'm brilliant. I lost 6 pounds in the past 3 weeks. Dancing and running all over is the logical reason.

And yet, I'm auditioning next time? Why, yes, my dears. I probably am.

Mrs. Wilhelm took this picture and is practically documenting the whole tech week, in addition to painting and working on sets. What a boss!