Wonderful news! We have officially begun rehearsals as of yesterday. It's difficult to believe that after an entire summer of anticipation, this project is finally happening. I finally met my cast-mates, Jack and Jenn, in person, and we've hit it off immediately. Considering what a disaster it would be to travel for 10 weeks with people you can't stand, you can imagine what a relief it is to know how well we're going to get along.
We've already started listing movies to bring and things to do on the road.
Rehearsals themselves have been fun and surprisingly painless so far. Jenn and I talked before-hand about being very nervous regarding what rehearsal week would be like, first and foremost because they wanted us to be off-book [have our lines memorized] from day one, which is a lot to ask. However, we've been doing a lot of table work for these first few days, reading the script aloud and really delving into the plot and fleshing out our characters—as a writer, I've been in hog heaven. Tomorrow we expect to get the show on its feet. Our director has been involved with the — — Players for going on 13 years, so he really knows the ins-and-outs of how the tour will work. He also happens to be the author of the version of Beauty & the Beast that we'll be performing, which makes his insight into the script even more invaluable to us as actors. For me, the past couple of days have taken a script that seemed fun and silly on the surface and really brought to a new level with a lot of depth and good, moral lessons for the kids to learn from it.
Also exciting is my new discovery of just how much down-time I will apparently have on this trip. While we can expect to perform about 15 shows a week, at a new school every time, there should be plenty of time to explore the cities we are visiting and to spend time with each other, but also for personal projects. I have made a solid promise to myself to devote a lot of time to swimming laps while I'm gone. My employee membership to the YMCA means I will have no excuse not to seek out a pool wherever I am. Although for a while in early spring I was swimming and working out more regularly, the amount of time I have spent working at the Y for the past few months has meant not wanting to spend my down-time there as well. Besides just being fit, swimming has really become a centering pastime for me—I feel that it helps me cope with my stress and either forget about or deal with my problems, depending on which one I want. In a sense, it allows me to go to my "Mind Palace" (BBC Sherlock, anyone?).
Aside from that, I plan to use my extra time to return to my writing. For the past several months, other than the occasional blog entries and regular journaling, I really haven't done much writing, certainly not for any of my long-term projects. Some of it is writer's block, some of it is not having the time, and some of it is just blatant laziness that I have no excuse for. So I've determined I'm going to set a minimum number of pages to write for every day, no matter what they are about or for. And this blog (read as: glorified diary) will not count. That would be too easy!
Meanwhile, we leave in exactly one week, and I'm still mentally preparing myself for that. It just hasn't seemed real until now. I still have laundry to do! And I need to list everything I want to pack! The only thing I've done to prepare for my departure is enlist my friend Elissa to water my African violets, Lucy and Ethel. I'll have to start getting it in gear soon, though; the clock is ticking.
On a side note, there has been a sad lack of comments on my blog. I'd love to hear your responses! And ask me questions! I love questions! What are you curious about? Please feel free to ask.
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