I Fell Off The Wagon...

...for blogging.  You know how sometimes everything happens all at once?  Yep, that's what happened.  Good stuff, sad stuff, scary stuff, work stuff, busy stuff, stuff stuff...all of it all at once.  I guess that's life, huh?  And it's all okay.  I'm not going to play catch-up because it's too much.  Let's just start anew, shall we? 

Let's see....oh!  I got cast in a show!!!!  I'm so excited and I just can't hide it!  More details when the theater announces, but man, oh, man, this is one happy gal :-)  I asked for the script early-early so I could start learning my lines.  I'm guessing every actor has their own process on how they learn lines, because, you know, you gotta learn 'em!  For me?  Repetition, repetition, repetition.  I actually read the play over and over and over ad nauseam so that I know the whole play pretty well by the time I dig in.  And I learn my lines with no intention behind them because rehearsal will be the time for exploring all there is.  I worked with an actor once who had made all of her choices before we started rehearsal.  I don't think I'd ever run into that before in my long career.  Let me tell you, that was extremely difficult.  Because nothing anyone could do would affect her and if you did something she didn't expect, which was always because she had made decisions in a vacuum, it would throw her and she couldn't remember her lines.  I found it very controlling and frustrating.  Oh, and she would stay in character the whole time we were rehearsing.  You couldn't call her by her actual name because she wouldn't respond.  I found it bizarre and impossible to work with.  We managed, but I'm not going to lie, the show really suffered for it.  So.  I learn the words.  I write down a lot of thoughts and questions.  I research the hell out of everything - words I don't know; references to everything, even if I think I know what they are; pronunciations; places; people....I adore this part of prep.  It's so exciting to delve into a script before rehearsals begin.  I find that if I get all the work done before I walk into the first read (I say "all the work," but as soon as rehearsal starts, there's a ton more research for me to do and so many questions that pop up -- exciting!!), then the butterflies that I always feel before I start a new project (all the blurts, like they've made a huge mistake in casting me!  I have no idea what I'm doing! I'm a total imposter!  I mean, really, WTF do we do to ourselves?!) are diminished as soon as we crack our scripts open and start to read and I feel....like I'm home.  Can't wait till we start!  I'll keep you blogged on the process :-)

Speaking of butterflies, we planted this lovely salvia as one of our pollinators and I've been anxiously eyeing it, waiting for butterflies to find it.  Yesterday, lo and behold, this beauty was exploring the purple spikes!  I tried not to scare it away in my excitement, but after snapping this picture, it fluttered away. I hope it remembers where it got some dessert :-)

Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, I hope you find the joy in the moment and are breathing deeply and looking for the beautiful.