Blogging from the Booth

The light booth, that is.

Being cast in a Drama Department show also means receiving a production assignment; mine is light board operator for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a senior project (like a thesis). So I've spent the last week in the Powerhouse, programming light cues and subsequently running them. Though I am definitely an actor through and through, I have had the best time. It's refreshing to get outside your comfort zone, to work your brain in a new way and be part of something that breaks up the daily routine, if just for a week. And here's a bit of what the week looked like:

A super cute cast+director+stage manager huddle

Multi-tasking is the name of the game. Reading Mary Barton and running lights.

The caffeine was for the paper I would write on the aforementioned novel later that night.

Buttons I have become quite familiar with.

State of the art stuff, folks. Apparently this is the light board they 

are currently using on Broadway.

A great moment when the character George shoots an umbrella

out of a gun. Another moment of stagecraft genius from Paul.

I had never read this show, and watching it so many times has been wonderful. Edward Albee is really a family drama genius. I've picked up something different and found a new meaning every time they have run it. And the acting is brilliant. I knew all but one of the four, and had never really seen them perform. I was so impressed and inspired by them; they have really worked hard, and it shows. The director is a senior who I knew of last year, but hadn't really said more than one word to until this semester. I was very happy to have been assigned to work on her project, and was all the more happy when I saw this on the light board tonight:

To know someone feels a similar way about you is really gratifying. This is one of those things that will be a keepsake for a while. Maybe that's just me, though. I keep everything. 

SO. Here we are, opening night! I'm watching the house fill up and hearing the noise of the crowd grow. It's weird to watch a theater fill up and not be backstage, touching up my makeup and taking deep, cleansing breaths to rid myself of nerves. I haven't done tech for a show since freshman year of high school. I like it, though. I have realized that my passion for theater is not just a passion for acting, but for the entire theater process and experience. I really do love it all, and it makes me so happy to say that.

And even though I did virtually nothing to make this show a success, I can't help but feel a little pride and a little nervousness as well. It's just exhilarating. Being a part of something, it's exhilarating.