My First Thespian Experience

19 January, 2010 at 6:51 pm (Miscellaneous, Weekend Update)

My good friend Dan is a playwright (or, as he prefers, a writer). I met him soon after I moved to New York, and over the past year or so, he’s been trying to get me in something he’s written. First, it was just a reading – that fell through. Then, a couple of months ago, he asked me to read for a character in a short play he’d written. The play was only about 10 pages long, and would be just one of a short play “lab”. I read it, and liked it, and before I could talk myself out of it – I agreed.

And I have to say…it wasn’t bad! The play was only about 15 minutes, and my part was sort of as a narrator, so it was really almost more of a storyteller than actor – I sat in the middle of the stage and talked to the audience, and then interacted with the other two actors as they came and went from the stage. There were only two performances, and as it was just in a small black-box theatre, the sold-out crowd was still only 60-80 people. But was I nervous? Well yes, yes I was. Though I think the process of rehearsing/learning lines was almost more nerve-wracking than actually performing the thing! But it went well (if I do say so myself). I did flub a line on the 2nd performance, but (according to the director) I covered it and nobody could tell.

But yeah, the whole experience was pretty fun. It was neat being part of the process, and nice to meet new people (I obviously know the writer and also know the director, aka Dan’s roommate, but I didn’t know the other two actors before we started). I can’t say I’ve caught the acting bug full-on; I am definitely not quitting my job to pursue a career on stage. But would I do it again, if asked? Absolutely.