Houston Day 272

On Monday when we went out for drinks after Shakespeare class we found ourselves talking about what happens spiritually when you do theatre (kind of inevitable when you let me guide the topic of conversation).  There are occasions as an actor when I feel that what is being communicated is incredibly important, and that it reaches something deep and transcendent in me, the other cast members, and/or the audience.  And the others in this conversation mentioned related things....that something funny happens with time when you're onstage, and how rewarding it is to be so committed to something that costs you, that you are chained to and so invested in that it feels like your child.
Then there are the write-off days, where very little is achieved, and I am acutely aware of how fine the line is between being an actor and simply behaving like an idiot in front of crowds of strangers.  We had a show like that yesterday afternoon.  I won't go into the reasons but it was certainly a disappointing show for all of us.  Brandon was actually punching things, he was so angry.
But today's show felt great.  We were in our own space, and we got Derrick back, and it went almost entirely without a hitch.  An older black woman in the audience spoke to us in the Q & A afterwards about how meaningful it was for her, and how proud she was to take her great-grandchildren to learn about their ancestors' history in this way.  And I love it when the kids in the audience ask thorny questions about the details of the history (the one we got today was why it was Africans that were chosen to be slaves), because that means they were engaged in the show and they're thinking about it.
And the fun theatre experiences continue tonight.  Tonight a bunch of us are going to the second part of the Tom Stoppard trilogy The Coast of Utopia at Main Street Theater.  And then going out for drinks afterwards to help each other figure out what the hell it was about.  The trilogy is centred around four historical Russian characters - Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin, Ivan Turgenev, and Vissarion Belinsky - who I'm not very familiar with, and there's a lot of philosophical stuff in it that is beyond me as well.  But I love going to theatre that confuses me and just letting it wash over me, grabbing the moments I enjoy and figuring out some more of it later.  And Main Street is my new favourite company.  I can't wait to work for them come May!