Either way you slice it, there is politics in theater – especially community or school theater. The people who are in the inside crowd nearly always get cast, and you really have to work and “pay your dues” (read: kiss lots of ass) to be let into that crowd. For those who really love theater, it’s of course completely worth it. However, for those of us who consider theater a passing hobby or an occasional creative outlet, it just seems like pulling teeth to get into a show.<\/p>\n
When I was in high school, I was in the drama\/theater circle, and I started my freshman year – kissing the asses of my teachers and also the seniors. By my junior and senior year, I was ruling the department along with my fellow insiders. We had really worked our way up the theatrical-political chain to the point of truly being the kings of the theater department. We got the leads, we made the calls, we ran the show.<\/p>\n
Then, after being the big fish, I left that small pond and jumped into a different small pond (slightly larger) and shrank in size again. In college, I had to start all over – only I wasn’t that heavily involved. I was a Computer Science major; this was the total opposite side of campus, not to mention brain. So I auditioned for one show, didn’t get in, and pretty much gave up. It wasn’t worth it. My career in theater was over.<\/p>\n
Or was it? I didn’t do a show again, acting or crewing, for five years (maybe six), and it didn’t seem to matter. Until that fateful day when I said “sure” once and “why not?” a second time and I found myself in not only a small Halloween show, but in the ensemble of a musical. This was one of those rare cases where I was on the inside crowd by association. I didn’t work to get there really, I was just close to the people who did. So I walked right in, until the day that I couldn’t anymore, and I haven’t done a show since.<\/p>\n
Now, I don’t need theater as much as some people I know (like my sister), but I have that bug occasionally as I watch a live performance or sing in my car. It’s not that I’m particularly great at it, or that I really even enjoy the false sense of camaraderie that being in a production brings. It’s just that sort of creative buzz that I get from being involved in the whole process just a little bit. I’m too practical (and untalented) to make that a living – but it’s a nice escape from my too practical life.<\/p>\n
All I’m saying is I wish I didn’t have to keep playing the games to get involved. I have to start up that theatrical-political ladder again, somewhere\/anywhere just to have a shot at keeping my creative juices flowing. That’s why I always ramble about starting my own theater company – but of course, that’s just as much work or more as trying to be a true part of an existing one. So, I’m probably doomed to a life of simply singing in my car, but at least I often have a chorus with me…and they’re more theater crazy than me. That’s a scary thought actually.<\/p>\n
Well, I still have my piano, and writing, and softball, and…school, I guess. And work, right? Oh man – I think I need to take up knitting or something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Either way you slice it, there is politics in theater – especially community or school theater. The people who are in the inside crowd nearly always get cast, and you really have to work and “pay your dues” (read: kiss lots of ass) to be let into that crowd. For those who really love theater, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/ramblings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/ramblings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/ramblings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/ramblings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/ramblings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/ramblings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/ramblings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/ramblings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/ramblings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}