Alchemy

Can I explain to you, can I try to put into words just how fun it can be to rehearse a play? I am turned-on down to my toes by the process of getting a show ready for its audience. From the table read, where we all bravely throw ourselves into the fray and "perform" the entire show, books and pencils in hand. Through the first rehearsals, where it all falls apart, descends into chaos, as we struggle to understand the words, the actions, to find ourselves in our characters and our characters in the stories. Through explorations, on and off text, impulses followed, direction given, attempts made, failures and successes embraced alike. Through the moment when we set the scripts down, and it all falls apart again as we reach for the words, struggle to put the words and the thoughts and the actions all together. To that final thrust when we leave the rehearsal hall and move to the stage and lights and sounds and set enter the equation, and it falls apart for the final time, coming back together, by hook and by crook and by super human effort into something gleaming and new and never seen before, a slice of all of our minds and souls and hearts combined into one fabulous journey.

I love my job.