Orbs 'r' Us

ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY....

This may sound silly but I am only now recovering from the high emotions that hit me while I contended with the stress that comes from "stage productions"! Having to tell myself to quit thinking about set building/prop making/cat herding/prompting...etc, has been very hard and my final "pissy fit" at the end didn't help!

During these productions [which was about 3 different restaurants], I worked on a real high, forcing myself to try to remember everything during that time frame so I wouldn't let my fellow thespians down! So when I was hit with a "it's not my fault I missed my lines because I was almost poisoned by bad food" and everyone looks at me...hit me below the belt!

After it was over, I couldn't get out of there fast enough!

No one was really accusing me or pointing fingers but it made me accuse myself! When in actuality, the bad food wasn't my fault...they were supposed to have provided me with their own food daily...my job was putting it together for their usage in the play!

It was just the lowness of someone else's comments, to cover their inability to learn their job, that hurt me the most!

I tried to laugh it off as a small minor thing but couldn't...I'm too anal about what I do and how well that I do it! It was a flaw that just ate at me!

This made blogging impossible until I could rationalize my "pissy fit"!

My mom always preached to me..."if you haven't got anything nice to say...don't say anything at all and if you can't let it go...wait til' a cooler mind prevails"!

I'm cooler now!

As for our production...it went well! Thursday night saw a small crowd of 41 people and they enjoyed the show but were pissed off at us because there wasn't a bar. How can you enjoy a bad performance without the possibility of getting pissed to help one's self get through it? Friday's crowd was larger and were allowed to get pissed if needed to...all that commented later enjoyed it enough not to! Saturday showed us a "sold out" crowd. From comments all went great!

We had our flubbed lines but the crowd never noticed...thankfully they don't get to read the script! Prompters have to read it nightly! Our group was professional enough to pull it off! I even had great comments on the set and props...when they could find me.

But my job didn't end when the curtains went down. The set had to be made right for the next evening's production. This meant washing dishes, cutlery and getting the stuff ready to take home to fill again. So I had no time to go out and get my "pats on the back" for my job well done. Some of the others did offer to help me and some did help [thank you Wilma], but by then I had already completed my tasks. Every night I ended up trying to go to sleep only to have my exhaustion keep me awake. Mornings always came too soon! I worked each day [even Saturday] to keep up with the work that was finally starting to come in.

So in all...I worked myself into having a silly comment upset me!

It's from this last experience that I have finally realized that I'm just not young [or healthy] enough to do this anymore! Getting riled up over a stupid comment was the final straw for me!

I've decided that the younger ones need to experience the stress that comes from building something to please others! If I do anything for this group again it will only be something where I need not attend rehearsals or work too hard! I love community theater too much to just do nothing...maybe the table centerpieces? I don't think I could screw them up as bad as these last ones were[not my comment, I just got to hear it later].....?

There was one bright angel that struggled with this production with me and who also cared too much on how "we are slowly losing the finer points" that are needed to pull these thing off...Wilma! She was my "taxi driver" and an ear to bend after each rehearsal...she kept me on the straight and narrow...giving me the strength to finish it! Hopefully she doesn't get burned out also! Thanks girl for all you did for me!

Lastly but not the least ,was the help that my daughter gave me...even after she told me that she "wasn't doing anything for the play this year"! I enjoyed working with her on the building of the sets...she was the strength that helped put them together! She even filled in for Wilma once when she was away. She's expressed an interest in acting...maybe I just look after my grandchildren instead...?

I wanted to have photos to put in my blog on what I had accomplished this year but my camera must have sensed my mood because all of my shots are too blurry! Must be my old age shakes?

So now my "pissy fit" is over!