Last week was my spring break and instead of relaxing at home spending ridiculous amounts of time sleeping I spent nearly every waking moment in the Performing Arts Center building a three story set of the upcoming high school production. Not that I'm in high school anymore, but I figure, hey. When you were in a club in high school and you're around when that club needs help, why not lend a hand? 

When I wasn't in the PAC I was at work and definitely NOT studying the lines I needed to be studying for the play I'm actually in. As Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I might be in trouble for that a little while down the road. Like today. When we do our speed run through and I don't know any of my lines in Act 2. 

This week I have been juggling rehearsal and still helping with some final things in the high school show. Last night was their final dress rehearsal and I took the official show photos (oh, I like photography, did I mention that?) and spent 2.5 hours holding an insanely heavy camera with a giant lens attached. However, it was a rewarding experience. Plus I got to see the show early!! 

Tonight I have rehearsal, tomorrow morning I have rehearsal. Every day next week I have rehearsal. My life is being eaten up by theatre. I am in no way upset by this. I love theatre. I wouldn't change anything in the world right now, because as stressful as theatre is, and as sleep deprived as all of us thespians get, I wouldn't change it for the world. 

I mean, where else can you go play make-believe and have it be acceptable after the age of 10? Where else can you go to feel like you are creating a magic that no one will ever be able to recreate. For a brief moment of history, all the plywood things up there sharing the stage are real, and I am not me, I am Dorothy, and the lights turn on and feel like sunshine kissing my face as I play in the Kansas grasslands, and everything is right for that time. Nothing troubles me or upsets me and basically, the stage is my home.

I love the stage, I love the darkest spots where the technical workers hang out and hide, always there, but never seen, I love the wings, where anxious children peek their heads out to see how many people are in the audience. I love the booth where the stage manager sits to call the show, where the light and sound people see all their hard work displayed, where actors who are in with the techies hang out in their down time, I love the stage, where magic is created, and I love the concept of dressing rooms, because they preserve the tiny amount of modesty that actors have left. But in all honesty, quick changes happen, which means everyone in the show has seen someone else in their underwear at least once.

When I complain about being in the PAC and always being busy and never having time for myself,  I'm not actually upset. I am just tired, or something. But truth is, I love it, and if I wasn't involved in theatre, and I wasn't spending all of my waking hours devoted to some show, what else would I be doing? Watching way too much Netflix, that's for sure. 

Theatre is an important part of my life because it allows me to express myself as an individual. Everyone should have something like that, I think.