I am inspired by Travis’ latest post to write a post about a play I saw recently which, surprisingly, deeply affected me.  But first, I want to address something I found interesting.  I always just rattle off some pithy title first, before I write the post, rather than Travis’, who said he writes the post, then comes up with the title.  Interesting how different people approach blog writing.  Of course, now that I said that, I can’t think of a title for this post.  But I’ll work on that later.

I saw “Blown Sideways Through Life” last week and was surprisingly affected by it.  It’s a one-woman monologue written by Claudia Shear, who had 64 jobs by the time she was 34.  The play is basically about that.  And it’s a messy script, full of problems and non-sequiters and a too shiny happy people ending, but it got me anyway.  I’m sure it didn’t hurt that Barbara Chisholm was absolutely incredible in the role.  I got the feeling in the beginning that she’d been directed to be too broad and it felt a little forced, but once she got into the groove, she was hilarious, and very moving.  I think I was most shocked by the dramatic moments in the play.  The woman in the play is an actress, and she describes an audition pitch-perfect;  the nervousness, the self-doubt, the “why the hell do I do this again???”, then she says that despite all that, the 5 minutes of the audition are the best part of her day.  So true.  I really choked up during that, it got me, and it especially sucked because the play was in the round and so the other side of the audience could see me, plus I was by myself so they probably thought, what a poor lonely woman.  Not that I really care.  Anyway, then she described working at the Shakespeare festival and the feeling she got from that and I thought that was moving and inspiring too. 

I needed to be re-inspired about theatre again, honestly.  I’ve been feeling a bit disillusioned and totally sick of it.  After I Am Alpha failed to get the audience it deserved, and people who I thought supported my theatre and that I’d supported in the past did not come to see it with nary a made-up excuse, I was really pissed.  I thought, “screw it, I’m through busting my butt for theatre, it just leaves me exhausted, deeper in debt, and my garage a mess.”  On top of Alpha posting a huge loss, Silent Treatment, which I was supposed to be acting in in April, got cancelled due to various factors.  So I feel really transient right now.  But Blown Sideways made me remember what had attracted me to theatre in the first place, the way I felt back in high school simply being in the theatre.  The home and community I found there.  You should go see it if you can.