The Community of Theatre
Like nothing else.
If you ever have the opportunity, work at a theatre during a show, especially a community theatre. It doesn’t matter how you participate: acting, hair and makeup, stage managing, crewing the stage. It’s only important that you’re there and that you notice what’s going on around you. Observe it all; there’s so much to take in.
Hear the actors in the Green Room, awaiting their turn to go on. Listen to their conversations about past shows and dream roles. Watch them make themselves ready. Some have little rituals, some whisper their lines to themselves or practice them with a scene partner. Watch the nervousness right… before… they… enter only to blossom into confidence and connection as they step onstage. Watch the waiting actors quietly cheer when a particularly tricky or difficult part goes right. Stand to the side, though. People move quickly around here.
Spend some time in the pre-show hair and makeup room and listen to the chatter and gossip. Hear the supportive comments, the secrets divulged, the from-the-gut laughter. What happens in the makeup room stays in the makeup room. Sometimes.
Hear the stage managers radio their cues to the light booth or to the band. Watch them keep an eye on their script, following the action by the faint light in the wings, ready to pull a fly or the grand. See the stage…
