A sadly short post about opening Weekend

Apologies for the long wait, I came straight home from opening weekend at BRF and woke up on Monday morning to go and be an intern for Spotlight Youth Theater's Project Dance Camp. There shall be a post about that on my Astonishing blog shortly.
In short, the camp went through Friday and I didn't have time (or energy) Friday night to write anything. However, I have made use of my "Captain's Log" and wrote down many things that I discovered on the first weekend.


~Opening Weekend~
I was extremely nervous. Like can't eat breakfast, think you might throw up or pass out nervous. I wasn't as nervous as I was for the audition for BRF, where I was about to burst into tears (says the girl who does not cry), but I was pretty darn close.
Luckily, I have the most supportive cast in the WORLD to work with. I haven't interacted with anyone who tries to shut me down during a bit.
Even more important, I'm working with a Captain who not only shows me the ropes, but pushes me out and makes me start things (mostly wooing). When you've been portraying a Captain for several years, you ought to be at least good at it by now, but my Captain is more than good, he's brilliant! I swear I'll come up with a more descriptive word once my brain comes back from a 9 day marathon of physical activity.

Speaking of the physical side of being at BRF, the first weekend wasn't too bad. I took plenty of small 5 to 10 minute breaks, even if it was just sitting down on the Street and giving "free advise." I also downed enough Adam's Ale to have to visit the privies more times that I want to count (or admit) right now. I also made sure that I was snacking on salty things and drinking lots of "gator's aide" to replenish all the good stuff you need from that. The soup at the Dirty Duck Inn pretty much saves me every luncheon (sometime after 1pm) and keeps me going through the afternoon.

So now the things that I learned the first weekend- or was reminded of.

Reminder- If you aren't Failing 50% of the time, you aren't trying hard enough. (Note: Fail more).
Lesson- Simply talking to people is good. You don't always need a bit to make a connection.
Observation- Frobisher's mustache might poke his eyes out one day if it keeps getting longer.
Lesson- Every time you stretch yourself you find how elastic you truly are.

My first weekend was a plethora of discovery and sad to say: a lot of playing it safe. I took more risks the second weekend (also I found more of my character the second weekend). I can still take lots of more risks and am making a point to try and do so. I don't want to hide behind my Captain, I want to be able to work alongside of him. Even though I was told that I did very well on opening weekend, I knew deep down that there were times where my lack of self confidence got to me and I let the Captain take much more of a lead than I might have. Especially on the first day when I was excited but really had almost no idea how the day would go.

A note about my Captain for those of you who haven't met him, and even those who have: I really could not have asked for a better person to learn from and work with. Simply finding out how to hold my own around him when he's being the larger than life personality of Captain Frobisher has been a very good exercise. Combine that with the fact that he's pushed me out and made me take control of what we're doing a few times (which was terrifying, but in a good way), each day is a mental marathon as well as a physical one. All of this has made me a better performer and made me less self conscious and more able to just let go and let the scene go where it wants to!
My Captain, if he has taught me anything, has taught me the importance of "yes and." We've done some ridiculous things and it's all because we both just kept on saying "Yes, and." There were times were in my head I said "Really? Really? You want me to do what?" But then my other mind kicked in and said "This is funny! Let's go with it!" Point and example- wooing. It took me two weeks to become comfortable enough to simply make myself as ridiculous as possible and invoke "Venus' knees" as a compliment during a wooing. Don't ask where that came from...I have no clue.

Things that worked this week-
My mustache bit where I go about with a drawn on mustache and ask people how to grow better facial hair.
Asking men for advice on how to be manly (works really well with teenage guys).
My no cannibalism allowed contract. 3 times in four days and each the time reaction has been different, it's fantastic!

I promise that I will write another post about the most recent weekend, but that will come later today. There were many things that happened on the first weekend, but the second weekend only gets better.