The play has officially taken over my life.
Not that I didn’t know that was going to happen, but it still comes as an amazing commitment and the excitement and stress go hand in hand. I am pumped to work but have also been shot down this week – regardless, it lends fire to my energy.
On a somewhat strange tangent, I kind of feel like yoga has given me that ability. Defusing the stress and putting it into potential. I need to harness that earlier because, in the moment, I get extremely angry or pent up [and eat emotionally – never put granola bars in front of me!] but then later I make a resolve that will actually lend itself to a betterment. I believe that is the most important part. Anyway…
For the concrete happenings of this week, which seems as if it has been a really long time but has truly been brief, I will give a brief daily overview (brief, haha…)
Monday – First day of tennis: the running made me sore, but it also made me feel really good. I was really exercising – after months and months of low to none. The courts were wet and mucky for some inexplicable reason [Washington… mud… uck.] and so we went inside to do more conditioning (I tripped during grapevines – I guess I am just that coordinated). Overall, however, it was really refreshing to be back on. I love sports, I love exercising, and I have missed it dearly. Sadly, we learned that we have to cut 10-13 girls this year. It makes everyone on JV quake in their boots… I know I’m worried. But it gives me the right to be ruthless during matches! GO J!
Tuesday – Abby and I asked Coach if we could just stay for an hour of tennis on Tuesday because of play practice, but when I had gone that amount of time, I felt that they really needed me there, so I ran up to Perlman and asked him if I could go to that. Thankfully, he was understanding, and I ran back to the theater in a panic. I took over while tech continued to adjust lights and be… techy. We worked through some scenes and then drilled O’Byrne through his 10 Lies [Best. Scene. Ever.]
Wednesday – Every moment of the day and every class, from when I wake up in the morning to when I go to bed at night, I am thinking about Speak. No lie. We were offered to stay in Ms. Bennett’s room but were stopped halfway through by the administration and rules. It felt like just one more thing to me and so I got extremely emotional [and unprofessional, eck]. Fortunately, my cast members forgave me for this outburst and Catskill even tried to talk to the office. I believe that the best thing that came out of the entire thing was the fervor it gave people to work collectively and the conviction to work harder and beat out the odds. I knew it galvanized me to work as hard as I can to make this the best production it can be.
Thursday – I know that it sounds horrible, but I prayed for rain. I hoped, prayed, and wished all the night and that morning. And, I believe, my prayers were answered. It started snowing during 3rd period, cementing in stone the fact that the courts would be unuseable that day. The girls tell me that they ran inside for an hour and then were dismissed, so I drew in a deep breath about dodging out to go to practice. We had an all-cast rehearsal from 3-7pm, half in the theater, half in Ms. Pendlebury’s room. Melinda (Nicky), unfortunately, had an unexpected sickness and was escorted off campus by the nurse. But we persevered. We went through the entire play [minus the scenes that were unable to be done because of lack of actors] and ate pizza provided by Catskill [thanks!]. I got some great notes down and I believe that we are a little more prepared to get this right. As well, we got parts of our lights done and a Facebook group created to attract viewers. There were some issues with tech, but they were fortunately resolved later in the evening.
Friday – By this point, I have stayed up by an hour extra each night. I was quite tired and not focusing, but I went to tennis and won a match! I was so happy because my greatest frustration on Wednesday practice [where I went after our rehearsal fiasco] was losing on a tie-breaker (6-7, 7-10… gah). I really hope that all the previous people make the team, however, so I felt a twinge of guilt for beating the girl. But, I guess, it’s dog eat dog in some ways. I came back to rehearsal and we hotseated Nicole and Ivy. It was intense and absolutely entertaining. I love hotseats, personally.
And that brings us to the now, with exactly one more week to go. We are working tomorrow and Sunday, then drilling it in every day thereafter. I believe in us. We will succeed.
And that is the bottom line.
Want to see the dramatic conclusion? Check out my production of Speak in pictures and its write-up.
Check out some more posts featuring my photography.