2003-03-26 - 3:18 p.m.

New acting class, and Understudy Madness

Last night I started a new acting class. I'm not terribly impressed so far. The teacher is as old as the moon, and twice as wide. She claims she's done every imaginable job in theater and film (I didn't have the nerve to ask if that included fluffer (if you know what that means, shame on you)). So far she's kind of a Tangent McRamblePants. In explaining where the term "upstage" came from, she actually started describing why men in Elizabethan England wore daggers. Which, yeah, in some way was connected, but it took five minutes to get there, and we'd all pretty much forgotten where she'd started.

Also, I am by far the most experienced person in the class, and I wonder how well the other peeps are going to do. Which I wouldn't really care about, but we're doing scene study, so I have to work with some of them.

But "Do not compare yourself to other, for always there will be greater or lesser persons than yourself."

I'm hoping there are things for me to learn there.

~*~

I have no time to worry about all that (or to write this entry for that matter) right now, as I learned yesterday that I'll be performing this weekend. See, as an understudy, you have to be ready to go up at any time. Which is why I've been trying to be so prepared. Of course, this weekend is kind of an exception. One performer has gotten the flu, and is puking his guts out like clockwork. His understudy has bronchitis, and can't go five minutes without uncontrolled coughing.

Which leaves me. To learn a completely new part in three days, and then perform it without any rehearsal.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

(I'm so screwed.)