Day 68

I was in a directing scene for a friend of mine today. It was sort of last minute. We only rehearsed all the way through a handful of times, so I was a little nervous to say the least. It was a scene from "Baltimore Waltz". I haven't read the play. I wikipedia-ed it to know the general gist of the story, and it was pretty interesting. Although one of the things that was said was that it gained popularity during the late 80's when the AIDS scare was growing. A critic said that the play has lost some of is umph now because AIDS really isn't a death sentence anymore. But anyways...

The character I played was a Doctor who couldn't give a shit about anything anymore. It was fun because it is a serious scene, but I was sort of the comedic relief. I had to spout out these ridiculous sentences with medical mumbo jumbo that made absolutely no sense. It was a bitch to memorize, and even during the performance I couldn't get it. But, thankfully, since the audience, or other characters, aren't supposed to understand what I'm saying, I could make up words and no one would know the wiser. It was also interesting to play this character because it's the first time I've played a character that just didn't care about anyone else. There's a loss of humanity within her, and it was weird having to go in that direction. The little me inside me kept wanting to be more sympathetic towards the other characters, but I couldn't. It was a weird thing.

The scene went very well. I didn't get to stay for the critique, and I wish I could have heard what the other students thought about it. I enjoyed it. I like doing directing scenes because you can always learn something from it and grow as an actor.