A second of fame !

Every second is passing. 

Life changes every second of every minute. There is no going back from anything you said or did. If you did it you have to live with it. It is not always bad, though. There are happy moments, moments that you would like never to end, moments that make you look forward to tomorrow. Sitting beside a lake, all calm and breezy, smelling in the fresh air just after a rain. Hugging your mother or father after months of being apart. The time you slept in your lover's arms when she you were not in a good mood and she listened to you patiently blab about yourself. The time you had your first appearance in a movie. The first time you realised that one of your friends though you were their best friend. The time when your first invention ran successfully. The time when you got your best job offer. These moments make life worth the effort.

I just lived a moment, a very important moment, which may change my life forever. I gave an audition to a play at the University Theatre of University of Texas at Dallas. The Government Inspector, as the play was named, was supposed to be a whacky play with a lot of whacky characters. I was nervous, before giving the audition, but I think I thought about what I could lose by giving the audition and gave it a shot. I knew I would never get any role, so I went to the audition, gave it whatever nervous shot I could and came back with a role. I was given the role of the assistant of the Government Inspector in the play and I got way too excited. I told everyone I got a role at the University Theatre, and how excited I was at being in my first theatrical production ever. What I never told anyone was how much I was hoping to have a big role in the play.

Now, let me tell you something about myself, I hope for the best to happen with me, and if anything other than the best happens, I really think that it is the worst and I am usually ready for it. When all cast got the script, I realised I did not have as big of a role, but I was still very excited to debut at the theatre instead of ruining my first chance at acting. So, I took up the role and decided to give it my best acting ever. I went to the initial readings, got an idea of the role I had and how much I had to give in order to have a defining role. From street plays and small skits I had done earlier, I knew that at times in a script, the character you have to play is defined and at other times, you define the character you have to play. So, as the readings went along, every cast member was trying to find what their characters were and what made them whacky. My character was, well, hungry, go-with-the-flow type and I think a bit of a realist. I was beginning to enjoy where I was.

We went on with the rehearsals. For the first couple of weeks, we were only being called on specific days when we were needed for a rehearsal session. Cast members were only called to the rehearsal if they were in the part being rehearsed. By about mid March, we were done with the specific parts and were supposed to have rote our lines already. I, well, did not have many lines and was already on top of them by the end of part rehearsals, so I took it upon myself to try to learn the lines of every character, the complete play. Then, the hard part started, full cast rehearsals. We needed to stitch together scenes which we had rehearsed after breaking them apart. We also started learning how to use the set better. The set was almost a 2-storey apartment, without any roof. It had wooden walls, just like any house, small rooms and a staircase to get to the second floor. The set was open towards the audience so they could see what was being shown in different parts of the apartment.

Probably the most memorable time of the play was the full-cast rehearsals. All of my co-actors were extremely talented (and here I was, but let's leave that aside for a moment) and they did awesome acting, both in and out of the play. Some of them were very funny, some others knew what they were there for, some who were hoping to opt for a major or minor in theatre and then there was me. I rehearsed my lines every chance I got, so that I could fit better in the play and with the people there, but meh, who was I kidding? To the very end, I think I was able to get the flow of the play, every cast member's real names and almost all the lines in the play and the way each of the those characters say their lines.

Then came the day when we had the preview. The first performance night. You might have guessed, I was very very nervous (if not, you do not know me and are not worthy of reading the blog anymore, just kidding... or not!) and I knew I could mess up anything that night. My character is shown to be very hungry (as I say in the play "Last thing I ate was nine days ago!"), I had not eaten anything since the past nine hours, to make it look like I looked very hungry. My entry is about after 22 minutes into the play and at about 19 minutes, I stand behind the curtain, ready to follow my cue to step onto the stage. I am still very nervous and am trying to gather the courage to walk onto the stage, but as soon as I step out of that curtain and onto the stage, I freeze.

Something happened to me, I forgot all of my lines in a moment. I slowly walk downstage and wait for the lights to shine on me. Till then, I am watching the crowd, in character, trying to figure out how many of my friends came to watch the play. And then, the light shines on me, I start saying my lines, and in about 1 minute and 43 seconds into my monologue, I get my first laugh, followed by the second and my mind is clear off of anything else. I am right there, going with the flow, remembering my lines as soon as I am supposed to say them, waiting for the cues to say them. In that moment, standing in the midst of that play, I lived my first theatrical performance, my second of fame!