Day 51

It's days like today that remind me why I love theatre.

Today was the "24-Hour Play Festival" at Tech. It only comes once a year, and even though I was busy, I decided that I had so much fun last year, I wanted to get the chance to do it again. So I'm going to write about my experience with it, and give a little info about the process of it all. This will be a long blog, to make up for all the short ones, but it'll be worth it.

The night before, 7 playwrights met at 8pm and were given props and two cast members each and told to write a ten-minute play. They stayed up all night writing their plays and finished around 7 am. Then they met with 7 directors and discussed their ideas for the play. Then we, the actors, showed up at 8am Saturday morning and the day began.

For me, I found out my cast and playwright early on, as in that Friday night. I was super excited! Then that morning I found out that I was in the one drama out of 7 comedies. And I thought...DAMNIT! lol No one wants to be in the drama. You want to be in a high energy comedy since you only get 10 hour to rehearse it. You want it to be fun! So I was a little peeved at the fact. So we go into rehearsals for the show, and we read it once and I thought "Ok, I this is interesting." Then we read it again out loud and I thought "Ok...ok, this is good. I can make this work." It was then that I had to adjust my expectations for the day. This was going to be an in-depth drama acting exercise. I wasn't going to goof around and be silly. I was going to get psychological and philosophical. As soon as I adjusted, that's where everything started.

It became this really great acting experience. We had to drive into these characters and break down each scene and find our motivation and wants/needs. I never did anything like it before. I won't go into detail, because it was a general rehearsal process, but it was fantastic. We got about 8 hours of rehearsal time, then I had to head over to a gala to perform a bit from "Children of a Lesser God", but that's for a different blog.

I got back to the theatre around 8:15, and the show started at 8pm. Each show got the chance to perform in front of a packed audience. I rushed in and got into my homeless garb. I wanted a full out costume because even if we didn't have dirty makeup, I wanted people to look at me and think that I could legitimately be homeless. So we're about to go on, and we start setting up the stage for our show. As soon as I walk out onstage I hear some giggles from the audience. I could only assume people were thinking, "Oh God, Christina is dressed like a hobo...I wonder what crazy show they're doing."

And oh boy, were they in for a surprise!

We performed and it was...magical. By no means was it a perfect show, but for me, it felt fantastic. I actually got emotional during the performance, and I had a gross wipe away snot moment haha. But I was totally into it and feeling it. After the whole show, I had a couple of people come up to me and tell me that they teared up or cried after watching our show, which makes me feel incredible. Not only did I feel that emotion and portray it to an audience, I made them feel something deep from it. And our playwright was all raves about the show, which is all you can ask for. In all honesty, every show was fantastic. They all turned out so well. I think this night of theatre is one of the best performances I've seen in Lubbock since I've been here. It was that entertaining.

Afterward, I think everyone, including me, felt so rejuvenated. Everyone had a fantastic night. And for me, it only reminded me why I do what I do. The feeling you get after a night like that...there is just no comparison. I felt so accomplished and my artistic side felt complete again.

I'm glad for these moments. I just want to save them for those days where I question why I chose theatre as my profession. I wish I had more days like this, but when they come around I appreciate them even more since they are so scarce.