Last Person: Late, Living in Denial, and Laughter. And, oh yeah, Rehearsals!

Things are picking up now that we have a full cast, a full schedule of rehearsals, and a lot to work on. That comforting thought that I used to have, “my part will basically be over once the rewrite is done,” no longer comforts me. The amount of work put into a project like this really hit me this week as we discussed our lighting and sound needs, as well as meeting with our costume designer. All this combined with my six other classes is really beginning to catch up with me. Caffeine is my friend and stress is my constant companion, but I know it will all be worth it. That has become my comforting thought. However, the stress has had me thinking about what I really expected from this experience. Originally, I had zero expectation that my play would be picked. I also didn’t know anything about the One-Act festival itself as I had never been a part of it before. In fact, other than play-in-a-day, I hadn’t been a part of any OSU shows until now. I feel so inexperienced, so new, and so unprepared. I didn’t know there was a full class involved. Heck, I didn’t even know I’d be involved further than just submitting a better draft of my play. To be completely honest, I didn’t want to be involved more than that. I already had a full schedule and I turned down being assistant stage manager for Sense and Sensibility because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the time commitment.

I actually thought about dropping the class and asking our professor to take my show out of the festival, but I didn’t want to do that to Lindsey. Of course, I believe she can handle anything and choosing one of the other submitted plays probably wouldn’t have been too difficult, but that would already put them behind. Mostly, I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. I didn’t want to feel like a coward and I’ve never been one to back out on commitments. In order to calm myself down from a panic attack, I have to pretend (to myself) that I don’t care about any of it. I have to pretend that I don’t have a pile of things to do, assignments to complete, grades to achieve, and life issues to worry about. This “denial” that I live in is a blanket covering. That being said, I don’t regret my decision to submit my play. I am truly grateful for this opportunity.

On a much more positive not, we had our read-through and our first three rehearsals this week. So far, I love what I am seeing from our cast and director! Lindsey explains exactly what she wants, so well that I can really see the exact vision she has for this show. The actors are fun to work with and fun to watch! Lindsey’s vision is not what I expected for the play, but it is so much better. She has made it a lot more humorous than I could ever have envisioned and I am loving every second of it! I am usually laughing and enjoying myself through most of the rehearsals. Theses awesome people are the reason I truly believe everything will be worth it.