I really could've danced all night ;)

That's my director hugging Tom Wilson on the side there...XD

Theater is so wonderful. I'd forgotten that until last weekend. I forgot how much I love performing, I forgot how much I love the preparation, I forgot how much I love the feeling of family it creates. 

Last Friday was opening night of My Fair Lady. I cannot even begin to express how much fun it was. It felt so weird, like we'd been rehearsing for five-ish months and in the past couple weeks we'd done a good 48 hours of rehearsals. And it all led up to last weekend. That afternoon, the main dressing room was a mess and smelled strongly of hairspray and death, according to some, and it was crowded and loud and there was music blasting out our eardrums and our director even came in and sang with us. And everyone was running around singing, "Bed, bed, I couldn't go to bed / my head's too light to try to set it down" or "Then they'll march you, 'enry 'iggins, to the wall / and the king'll say Eliza sound the call." And people were cracking stupid jokes while makeup was being applied by shaking hands and everyone was curling someone else's hair. 

And theater is some people's lives. And I can see why. If last Friday night could be my life.... There aren't enough letters in the alphabet or exclamation points in the world to express my happiness. 

I have such pretty friends. And then there's me.
Seriously. What is that face.
I don't even...

It feels good to become a part of something bigger than yourself. It feels good to go into the audience after the show and see all the smiling faces. And this is why I've been performing half my life, and this is why I never want to stop. 

Rehearsals were long and I'm pretty sure I was hungry for more than half of them. I got rather sick of seeing the same scenes everyday and I wasn't too fond of the shoes I had to wear. Once we finally got to the stage, setting up the mikes and sound checking took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Friday morning, we got to the theater at 8:30 AM ish and started working, again, on the mikes and sound system. Blah. The director told us we could leave at one if we wanted and come back in a few hours, and yes, I wanted. I couldn't be there anymore, I was hungry and tired and needed sleep. 

Apparently I wasn't the only one, because when I got back to the theater a few hours later, some people were sleeping on the stage. 

We'd all been working on the play for months, so many of the jokes weren't funny to us anymore. And then there were also funny things that we didn't even realize were funny until the audience started cracking up. It was so interesting to see that. 

HA she thinks she escaped...

So many hours where everyone just sat in the back...

  

Why is theater so magical? Why do we enjoy watching others play dress-up for three hours? My theory is because everybody likes to escape reality. 

Doing this play was like entering some kind of wonderland for me and I got to work with such amazing people and got to meet amazing people (including Tom Wilson, Kelly Ward, and Leigh-Allyn Baker)(oh the perks of living in SoCal xD) and it was such a great experience.  

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In other news... 

I've got about two weeks left of school and I have had no time to write (the saddest thing) and I've got a seminar to prepare for and SCHOOL IS ENDING IT'S SO STRESSFUL. 

Seriously, I'm so stressed, and tea isn't helping, and you know you're beyond help when tea isn't helping. HOW DOES TEA NOT HELP? 

I need to chilllllll.