A method actor's dream
Your girlfriend is an aspiring actress. One day she says: “I’m going to take some acting classes.” You decide that you’d like to as well. She seems to not mind but you realize now that she was acting when she smiled and said yes. The first day of your acting scene work class goes well. It’s fun to act again after all those years since college. Dwyer Brown seems like a very nice person and a knowledgeable, passionate teacher. The time is spent breaking through the layers of emotional armor individually in front of the class. Here’s the plan: we’ll all be paired up or put in a group of 3 and spend the 8 classes perfecting one scene. Some will also have a monolog/scene all to themselves. At the end of the 2 months we will all perform in the small theatre which will be open to the public. The audience will consist of invited friends, family and strangers. Dwyer’s idea is to put me in a scene with my girlfriend and David. Just before he gets in his car he turns and asks me: “How good is your relationship with your girlfriend?”
The classes fly by. Its not long before you realize that this is a great form of therapy for you to regain the confidence that’s necessary to perform. The confidence you’d lost when your bio computer’s operating system stopped functioning. Yes, suddenly your name did not fit any more. You did not know who you were or how to feel anything except shame, fear and guilt. You’d thought that you’d lost your mind. You became fearful of human interaction and would sit in the basement all day staring at the ceiling.
Congratulations, somehow you drove three thousand miles across North America to the Golden State that is California.
The scene work goes well, you and your girlfriend, Dianna, drive to David’s house to rehearse on a weekly basis. You have a lot of lines and a few monologues but you manage to learn them all. In the scene, your girlfriend plays your girlfriend. The drama in the scene involves your girlfriend spending the night with someone. You find her hiding in the closet. She’s left you for another man. You have an individual scene as well from the play: “The Rainmaker”. In this one you are Starbuck. You have to convince the audience of farmers that you can bring aqua pura to their parched land.
The two roles are a nice contrast. In one you play an uptight social worker from: “Ten Thousand Clowns”. The other: an extroverted conman with the confidence to make skeptical farmers believe you can make rain.
2 nights before the first public performance: Dianna breaks up with you. Well, sort of. She’s met someone else. He works at a video store and he’s a professor. She’d like to see both of you. You don’t even consider it. This relationship is over.
Of course, the show must go on. You will now go onstage with your fresh ex-girlfriend but you will not tell anyone that. This is a method actor’s dream you lucky bastard. You’ve invited many friends to witness your performance that’s now crossed over and become your life. All those rehearsals had become a way for Dianna to get used to the idea of breaking up with you. At least you did not find her in some dude’s closet wearing his big white shirt with a button down collar and nothing else. She just told you on her driveway while tears slid down her cheeks leaving trails glistening in the last rays of the sun.
Have no fear though, the sun will appear again tomorrow with fresh rays; both nights will be spectacular. There will be audience members who will think that your 2 roles were done by 2 different actors. Yeah, you only dated Dianna for 3 months anyway. She let you off easy. Count your blessings. You don’t even want to know what its gonna be like with your next girlfriend. She’s gonna put you though the ringer.
The classes fly by. Its not long before you realize that this is a great form of therapy for you to regain the confidence that’s necessary to perform. The confidence you’d lost when your bio computer’s operating system stopped functioning. Yes, suddenly your name did not fit any more. You did not know who you were or how to feel anything except shame, fear and guilt. You’d thought that you’d lost your mind. You became fearful of human interaction and would sit in the basement all day staring at the ceiling.
Congratulations, somehow you drove three thousand miles across North America to the Golden State that is California.
The scene work goes well, you and your girlfriend, Dianna, drive to David’s house to rehearse on a weekly basis. You have a lot of lines and a few monologues but you manage to learn them all. In the scene, your girlfriend plays your girlfriend. The drama in the scene involves your girlfriend spending the night with someone. You find her hiding in the closet. She’s left you for another man. You have an individual scene as well from the play: “The Rainmaker”. In this one you are Starbuck. You have to convince the audience of farmers that you can bring aqua pura to their parched land.
The two roles are a nice contrast. In one you play an uptight social worker from: “Ten Thousand Clowns”. The other: an extroverted conman with the confidence to make skeptical farmers believe you can make rain.
2 nights before the first public performance: Dianna breaks up with you. Well, sort of. She’s met someone else. He works at a video store and he’s a professor. She’d like to see both of you. You don’t even consider it. This relationship is over.
Of course, the show must go on. You will now go onstage with your fresh ex-girlfriend but you will not tell anyone that. This is a method actor’s dream you lucky bastard. You’ve invited many friends to witness your performance that’s now crossed over and become your life. All those rehearsals had become a way for Dianna to get used to the idea of breaking up with you. At least you did not find her in some dude’s closet wearing his big white shirt with a button down collar and nothing else. She just told you on her driveway while tears slid down her cheeks leaving trails glistening in the last rays of the sun.
Have no fear though, the sun will appear again tomorrow with fresh rays; both nights will be spectacular. There will be audience members who will think that your 2 roles were done by 2 different actors. Yeah, you only dated Dianna for 3 months anyway. She let you off easy. Count your blessings. You don’t even want to know what its gonna be like with your next girlfriend. She’s gonna put you though the ringer.
posted by Dij at 10:28 PM
2 waves:
That's great, Didj. My favorite post yet, I think.
Thanx Ty
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