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August 11, 2007

With a little over a week to go at the festival, and shows opening and closing left and right, my fellow apprentices and I waver between nostalgia and exhaustion. My priorities have shifted away from sleep, in favor of creativity.

I'm learning more and more that working for a professional theater is a 24/7 venture. On Monday of this week, I worked in the costume shop from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., grabbed lunch, went to a master class, and ate dinner. I was on wardrobe for The Physicists, starring Roger Rees, from 6:00 pm to midnight, and then I rehearsed an apprentice project from midnight to 1:30 a.m. I listened to music with my friends for a little too long, I set my alarm clock for another dismally early hour, and I collapsed on my bed. But last night at midnight, I sat on the floor of a packed black box to watch a directing intern's original work, Home Baking Made Easy, a baking burlesque. The bikini-sporting, main female actress doused both herself and the stage in milk, eggs, and flour. Sprinkles and pink frosting were soon to follow, as she iced cupcakes with her foot and proceeded to shove them into her face amidst screams, shouts, and cheers from the audience. Every moment of the show was elaborately detailed. Cupcakes in hand, the spectators left completely blown away by this actress who dove fearlessly into her written and baking material, and everyone took away a similar spark in the eye that said "this is what theater is - a total commitment to whatever one's doing."

I will leave Williamstown with a Nancy Drew notebook. Its cover reads "Spider Sapphire Mystery." The inside is full of recommendations: books and plays to read, movies to watch, acting and audition tips, possible paths to pursue. I will leave a more disciplined, punctual, and hopefully more mature Elyssa than ever before. And in my performances to come, I will not be satisfied just to have my cake or even just eat it: I will tear into it.