Run, Run, Run as Fast as You Can!

So this whole trying to get a crap load of hours done in two weeks is continuing to bite me in the backside.

Remember the whole needle attacking my fingers fiasco? Ah yes, that was a simpler time. Apparently that's not actually what my job is going to be for the rest of the quarter (that's just a side job of sorts I guess).

Yesterday I started the REAL work.

If I haven't made it clear by now that I'm a theatre newb, well, this should do the trick. I'm not sure how many people reading this know what a "Running Crew" for a show is, but if you do you're going to laugh at my naiveness for thinking that I was just going to be sewing the whole time. They really should have had a description or something on the sign up sheet... Of course, the word "running" is in the title, so I suppose I should have expected some sort of physical activity, right? Like maybe some running perhaps? NAH, couldn't be!

I showed up yesterday morning at 11 (the call time was an hour earlier than the day before... I should have known something was up) blissfully unaware of what I was actually going to be doing that day. I was sitting around in the lounge, eating a banana and rubbing sleep out of my eyes while the rest of the cast and crew trickled in (I'm NOT a morning person. 11:00 am is technically still in the morning you know) when the other girl on the Costume Crew, Kim, started calling me from the hall. She told me we had to get stuff ready on stage. Confused, I told her I thought we were still going to be sewing the rest of the buttons and velcro on the jackets today. She just laughed. Uh oh.

For those of you who, like me, have no idea what being part of the Running Crew actually entails, it seems to involve:

1) A LOT of running (huh, go figure)
2) Enough stress to make poor Erika want to curl up in the fetal position behind the curtain and go back to sleep
3) Yelling (the angry kind and the frantic kind)
4) More stress
5) MORE running
6) Dealing with sweaty, stressed out actors
7) EVEN MORE RUNNING
8) and cleaning everything up at the end of the night

Since I was on the Costume Running Crew (as opposed to props and maybe tech? I'm really not sure what all the jobs are) I was in charge of helping the actors with their costume changes. Now that doesn't sound too hard, does it? HA! If wouldn't be so bad if the play we're doing didn't happen to have at least ten quick changes. PER ACTOR. A quick change is when the actor has mere seconds to change outfits before he/she has to run back out on stage. Granted, there are only three actors, but still, trying to speedily change three sweaty guys without ripping anything or making them miss their cues is no walk in the park.

At first it didn't seem too bad; there were three of us, and one girl (Carol) had seen the play and run through the changes before, so Kim and I basically just stood around and watched her run all over the place. However, about five minutes into Act 2 was when Carol decided to drop the bomb on us: she had to leave. She was abandoning us?! Well, that's not good. Apparently she has a job that actually pays her. Whoa, now that's a strange concept.

Kim and I had never even SEEN the play, let alone gone over any of the costume changes for the second act. To say Act 2 did not go smoothly would be an understatement. We missed changes, didn't know where props were (which I really didn't even realize we were supposed to be in charge of anyways; isn't that what the prop people are for?), and basically pissed off all the actors because we couldn't keep up. Needless to say, by the end of the first run through, I was pretty defeated. I was longing to be in the costume shop poking my thumb with that needle again, or better yet hiding at home under the covers.

Thankfully during the dinner break the stage manager went over the cues and costume order with us, and then for the second run through she let us keep her laptop with all her notes on what to do backstage with us, and it went much smoother. But I still was longing for a big mug of hot chocolate and a good episode of Friends by the time it was over. And I also made note of the fact that my sneakers, which I've had for about five years now, were apparently not meant for ten hours of running back and forth (we had to run everywhere just to keep up with the play; it's a very fast moving comedy). I might have to go out and buy some Dr. Scholls tomorrow... no buying cinnamon bread for me this week (I really need to make some money...).

Two more weeks of THAT? Oh God, what have I signed up for here?? Definitely no procrastination for me next quarter.

Cross my Heart and Hope to Die, Stick a Needle in my... Thumb?

As many of you may know, there is a horrible illness sweeping the across the globe. It cripples your mind and body, draining all of the energy out of the infected until all they can do is sit on the couch and channel flip, the tiniest activity becoming as daunting as the prospect of climbing Everest. That's right, you know what I'm talking about:

Procrastinationitis.

No one's quite sure how the disease is spread. Researchers are working hard to develop a cure, but so far they have been unsuccessful. So, if you are unlucky enough to become infected, you're pretty much doomed.

I have been living with Procrastinationitis for the majority of my young life. I caught it in the 8th grade, most likely from another student (schools are a breeding ground for germs you know) and have been suffering ever since. Ah yes, I remember the good old days in elementary school, when I actually finished assignments with time to spare and wanted to do exceptionally well in school. Nowadays it's a challenge just to lift my textbooks, let alone open them (although that may have to do less with procrastination and more with the fact that college text books are monstrously big).

Sometimes I think that maybe I've beaten it, that I've finally freed myself from this cursed disease. However, it always turns out that it was just lying dormant, and it hits me when I least expect it.

You know how whenever New Years comes around, people always think they can cure themselves of their afflictions?
"This year, I'm not gonna have more than two drinks with a meal!"
"This year, I'm gonna get over my fear of clowns!"

Well, I figured, why not give it a go, right? I've seen those resolutions work magic in the past; maybe this was the cure I've been looking for!

So, this was me less than two months ago:

"This year, I'm not going to procrastinate!! At all!!"

...

Yeah right.

That lasted about three days. Maybe a week... I can't remember the date I went back to school. But that's not important. What's important is that, once again, the lure of Procrastination has gotten me into trouble.

Here's the situation: Each quarter, people in the Theatre department at my school are supposed to do a certain number of hours of work for the shows, depending on which classes you're taking. I think the minimum amount of hours you have to get done is 10. Not so bad, right?

...I have to do 56. Hours.

By the tenth week of school.

We're about to start week eight.

So, naturally, I hadn't done anything yet.

When this realization hit me last week, I kind of had a little panic attack. Thankfully, there was one solution. Not so thankfully, it's kind of going to ruin any plans for catching up on my sleep I had previously made (I was obviously delusional; apparently if you're a Theatre major sleep is a foreign concept).

The solution (aka punishment) is that I work in the costume shop for the next two weeks straight on the show we have coming up. Now it's not that I don't like the costume shop; in fact, I actually really enjoy sewing, and the woman in charge is really great. It's the hours that really put me in a pickle.

See, I was planning on going home this weekend and next weekend. No no, not for a leisurely visit (pft, I wish), but in order to work on my audition pieces for the auditions for the spring productions. The auditions are on March 1st. I live in an apartment with three other girls, surrounded by other apartments with very thin walls, and for some reason people don't seem to appreciate me talking loudly to myself at odd hours. I'm pretty sure one of my roommates thinks I'm insane already; I really don't need anything reinforcing that belief in her (she just moved in... I should at least pretend to seem somewhat normal for a while, right?).

So that plan is royally screwed. But I suppose that's what I get for waiting so long to get started. I did my first "shift" in the shop today (we don't actually take turns, there are only two of us so we both have to be there the whole time) and stabbed my fingers probably 30+ times (I lost track after 20 or so). I also discovered that working with velcro is a PAIN IN THE... rear.

I've decided that this is not going to happen next quarter, no sir, no way! In fact, starting right now, I'm making a ReNewed Years Resolution (...I'm sure that's allowed, right?). AHEM.

From this day forward, I will not procrastinate for the rest of the school year!

...Alright, let's see how long that lasts. I'm gonna put my money on a week.

...Well, at least if I had any money that's where I'd put it.

5 hours down, 51 hours to go.

....*Awkwardly stares at screen*....

Hello there, cyberspace! (Let's see, what do you say to an endless abyss of space, cyber or otherwise...) Uh.... nice weather we're having?

Actually, that's a lie. It's pretty cloudy and cold out right now... I think it's going to rain...

Wait wait wait. Am I really talking (coughtypingcough) about the weather?! Wow. Surely I have something more interesting to talk about...

...

...

...

Well this is embarrassing. Here I am creating a blog and I have nothing to say. At least, not at this very moment. Right now I happen to be sitting in my apartment. Bored. Hence the whole blog making thing. But I now realize that I should probably actually have something to blog about in a blog, right? Right...

I guess I'll just introduce myself a bit and let you all (HA you all. I'm under the delusion that multiple people are going to actually read this) know why the heck I'm here.

Ahem.

If you looked up the word "dreamer" in the dictionary, you would probably see a picture of me. I'm a dreamer in every sense of the word. I'm constantly dreaming, whether I'm awake or asleep (and yes, I do often remember the dreams I have when I'm sleeping, and let me tell you, they're very strange). I have big dreams about my future and the life I could have, and I day dream when I'm bored (which is quite often). I'm pretty much dreaming every second of every day (and night). I guess you could say I have my head in the clouds, but hey, the view is pretty cool from up here.

Now let's talk about the title of this blog. Someone out there might recognize "The Actor's Nightmare" as the title of a Christopher Durang play. You see, I recently declared my new major (oh yes, I'm in college, did I mention that?) to be Theatre, and "The Actor's Nightmare" was the very first play I was in. In fact, it just closed yesterday. Hence my boredom/lack of things to do/talk about at the moment.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the play, it's about a man who somehow ends up on the set of a play and is forced to fill in for the lead, who has been in a car accident. Although I didn't play the man, George (I'm a girl... so that would be difficult...), I still felt like anyone could relate to the feeling of being thrust into something unexpected. Life just loves to throw curve balls like that at us, doesn't it? And since I'm new to this whole Theatre thing (I did some acting in high school and elementary school, but never any real plays) I definitely am dealing with that feeling of being out of place/completely clueless. So I decided to name my blog that because it kind of describes the beginning of this crazy adventure I'm about to embark on.

Which brings me to why the heck I'm writing this. Here's the plan:

1) Jump head first into my new major

2) Convince my family that I know what I'm doing with my life (they weren't too thrilled with the whole "I'M GONNA BE AN ACTOR!" declaration...)

3) Get to the level where people in the department actually want me in their plays

4) Become famous (or at least successful enough to buy a nice house someday)

5) Live happily ever after

...Alright, so that's a pretty ambitious goal, right? And I know, I know, like 90% of actors never actually end up getting any real work. But that's not gonna be me! No way, nuh uh. So I figured, why not chronicle my journey from average joe to... not-so-average joe? People might find it interesting... maybe? And it might be a good way to keep me motivated.

Now I know what you're thinking. I'm just another delusional young girl with no grasp on reality. Well... okay, that's slightly true. Reality is pretty boring sometimes though, isn't it? And maybe this isn't realistic. But you know what? I don't want to get to the end of my life and ask "What if?" I'm young, I'm single, I'm in college, if there's ever a time to take that leap, now would be it. I might as well try, right? And besides, what have I got to lose?

So there you go. That pretty much sums up why I'm on this site. I can definitely promise that I'll have something more interesting to talk about soon... I won't always post about the weather.

...I'm gonna go eat a bagel.