Curtain Call

Othello just closed, so I'll give you a brief rundown of things I've learned from the process over the past two months. These lessons are from classtime, private lessons, personal experience, and whatever else hit me like a rubber mallet to the face.


1. You are bound to run into someone too crazy and too senile and too absurd to have any sort of power, and yet there they are, in a position of power and authority. When dealing with these people, you must smile and nod and edge around the corners until you can ignore them completely.

2. Do not, under any circumstance, procrastinate in the face of Shakespeare and Eugene O'Neill simultaneously.

3. Sense memories are one of an actors most powerful and most dangerous tools.

4. No matter how wonderfully you can articulate and project, turning your ass to the audience to deliver lines is a complete and utter no-no. Even if the audience can hear you.

5. Let the make-up and hair crew do whatever they feel like. They don't listen to reason and think they understand your hair better than you do. Let them trial and error their way through the mutilated curls and retarded bobby pins until they can discover your hair's inability to function on their own. They'll feel better about themselves.

6. No matter what the situation is outside of the show, no matter how horrible and bleak it may seem, no matter how many nights you sit up sobbing and unable to sleep, the show must go on. The show will go on.

7. Techtors are few and far between. Cherish them when you find them.

8. Good people are few and far between. Cherish them when you find them. Tell your friends you love them and forgive them - you might not get another chance. Send a little message, give a hug, a smile, a phone call - connect with the people who matter. You don't want to have to apologize for something when they're lying in a casket.

9. Shakespeare isn't that scary once you download a mental translator.

10. Being lectured at is not a successful way to learn acting techniques.

11. Shows can turn out half-decent even if half the cast is legitimately challenged and has some form of Asberger's Syndrome.

12. Renaissance dresses and bodices are not condusive to belly dancing.

13. Find a mentor who you can really trust and bond with - the things you'll learn are endless.

14. No matter how tired or pissy or annoyed or college-y or hungover or weary you are, try to find something good to take out of every situation you are presented with. You never know what you'll wind up with.

15. Sometimes a trial by fire is the only way to go.

16. Love your stage manager. ADORE your stage manager.

17. Fight through flat audiences. There's nothing you can do but keep going. If it's sink or swim in a black hole audience, never, ever sink. Never. Fight the good fight, keep pushing the power you have and the show you know how to do. You have to lift yourself, your castmates, and try to fight off the overwhelming low energy around you. You have no choice but to keep fighting.

18. Never turn down an opportunity to nap.

19. Respect your green room. Love your green room. Do not leave four day old chinese food behind couches in the green room.

20. Treat every performance the same. No matter if you have a three night run or you put it on for seven days or two weekends or months at a time, treat every performance the same. Keep fighting for that energy. It's a fight. Every day is a fight.


I learned how to fight over the past few months. I'm stronger because of it.

Oh yeah. And I'm going back to KCACTF next January. :)