Hardworking actors

Actors are among the hardest working people on earth and the most hardworking actors are those who appear in community theater.  Their day jobs are by and large real careers and not just something to fill in the gaps, and yet they show up evenings and weekends for rehearsals, use up scarce personal leave on performance days, and somehow between jobs, rehearsals, and commuting, try to feed families, do laundry, tidy the house, walk the dog and - oh most precious commodity - sleep.  If they have a spouse who pitches in at home, as I do, they consider themselves blessed.  If they don't, I don't know how they cope.

Four days before we open with Cause Célèbre and the schedule is brutal. Spent the weekend loading in, reading lines as an ensemble, and doing cue-to-cue with the stage manager and sound and lighting crew.  I feel confident I've got the lines down and can now totally focus on characterization.  A few cast members (with far more lines) are still a bit ragged, but they're pros and I know will have it by opening night.  The pressure is intense. Tomorrow we begin dress rehearsals, which for me means three 19-hour days at a dead run.  The one benefit: I'm too exhausted to be nervous.

Genesius of Rome is the patron saint of actors, lawyers, barristers, clowns, comedians, converts, dancers, epileptics, musicians, printers, stenographers, and torture victims (aha!). Actors, at one point or another in their careers, can relate to every one of those roles I'm sure.  I am grateful for a wonderfully supportive cast who have been generous in sharing their experience with this film actress who is about to step in front of a theater audience for the first time.  Between a good saint and a good cast, everything should be okay.