Opening Day

So I'm a Theatre Major, right? And part of being a Theatre Major is getting involved with shows. Last show I was a dresser and that was interesting. I basically helped the actors get ready, made sure costumes looked good. When the show was over for the night I helped to spray the costumes so they didn't stink, cleaned the dressing rooms and washed the articles of clothing that had to be washed. This experience helped me gain so much respect for the dresser's position. But that's not really what this article is about.
Every semester we do two shows. A straight play, which is just acting no big huge musical numbers, and a musical. Our straight play was Much Ado About Nothing. I'd auditioned for the show but wasn't cast, hence why I was a dresser. Our musical was originally going to be Coram Boy, however the director felt he had taken on too much and decided to pull the plug on Coram Boy. Amadeus was chosen as our second Fall production. Two problems came up with Amadeus, the first one being we don't really have a lot of males in the department. The second one was there was no director. That being the case, Amadeus got the ax as well. Well we needed something to fill the slot and so a devised piece was proposed and accepted.
What is a devised piece? It is a show that is written, designed and run by the students. We came up with a central theme for the show, perfection. Everyone has different ideas of perfection and we wanted to show that. And so after plenty of meetings and debates Perfection: A Dixie State University Devised Piece was born. Each of us in the company wrote our own vignette on how we see perfection/ how we struggle with trying to be perfect. For example, my piece deals with depression. I play a cutter and in the background are the voices in my head I have to battle every day. It hits really close to home because as I'm sure most of you know, I used to be a cutter.
This show has been one of my most challenging and rewarding productions that I've been a part of. To create a brand new work of art that nobody's seen before is such a great feeling. My body is sore, both my knees have giant bruises from all the falling that takes place in this show. I have super fast quick changes that I have no idea how I manage. Oh and I've already managed to cut myself. Did you know sharp mirror corners are sharp? There has been some serious tension between the cast and to be 100% honest here, if nobody ends up dead by the end of the run I deserve a cookie. Despite all the things that have gone wrong, I'm still in awe at the final product. I feel incredibly lucky to have stood up for myself and chosen to major in Theatre. We have an incredibly beautiful show and I can't wait for others to see it.
Opening day is upon us. This is our second time running the full show with lights, sound, costumes all that fun stuff. I'm not going to lie, I'm nervous. I however, have no doubts in my mind  that we can pull this thing together and have a fantastic run. Closing night will be here before we know it and we'll no longer have rehearsals full of inside joke and touching moments. The show will live on only in our memories. We've created this amazingly beautiful and touching piece. We did it. Now it's time to break a leg and cherish this while it lasts.