I was feeling bored at the time, with a light course load that semester. So I wandered around, appearing more in the faculties of economics and human sciences than in the engineering faculty where I should rightfully have been studying in front of a textbook. I guess it comes as no surprise then that I had a lot more friends from other faculties. One group of them were English students whom I knew through my good friend Matiin.
And so I heard about how they wanted to cast a play (for an internal theatre competition) and how the English department had a lack of men (because they were taken up by the other competing plays). Put together a bored engineering male (student) and an English play that needs males; what do you get?
We practiced day and night for months! Memorizing the scripts, acting out the lines, vocal training in the middle of the night… It was so much fun. We had a great director too who really knew her stuff and showed us exactly what we needed to do to get it right.
Then we reached the night itself and we performed in front of hundreds of people! I’ll admit I’m an amateur but I didn’t embarrass myself too badly that night. We came out of it feeling pretty good about ourselves. And I came out of it feeling a little wiser about some things.
1. It taught me that I’ve come far.
You don’t know what you can do until you do it in front of 500 people. I’ve always had a bad reaction to speaking in front of people. And I’ve always tried hard to fight against it. Performing on stage was just the best test to see how far I’d come. I was pretty happy.
2. It taught me that rehearsing the same script a thousand times doesn’t make it dull.
Repeating that script a thousand times didn’t make it dull. It was the same script, day in and day out. But instead of boring me, it made me more connected. Once I knew them by heart, I could stop looking at the paper and really let my imagination move me instead.
But every time we rehearsed it, there would be something else that could be changed, something else to be improved on. So we practiced again and again, each time improving, until we could pull it off with the emphasis needed.
3. It taught me that I can do more.
Too many times I see people limited by what they do. Don’t get me wrong, engineering is awesome, maths is fun and physics is the most interesting thing in the world. But they’re not the only things I want to be able to do. I want to do more.
4. It taught me how to speak a little louder.
For those who know me, they know I prefer to keep my voice low. I hate people who shout for no reason, especially when they’re on the phone. I always imagine that they’re shouting because they’re afraid the person on the other side is too far away to hear them. After all, they’re sometimes a few hundred kilometres away! Lol.
Those vocal exercises they use are really good. They were good enough that they helped us ‘project’ our voice to the whole audience (we weren’t using microphones). So yeah, I can speak a little louder now. But maybe I choose not to.
5. It taught me that you always need to have their backs (in a calm way).
Loyalty is good but it doesn’t mean anything unless you can cover your friends’ backs when they mess up. One of the things we had to be ready for is if one of us messed up during the actual play. If I forgot a line, or someone else came on stage a little slow, what do you do?
You have to be able to cover. You have to be able to calmly see that there’s a problem and not freak out. then you have to do or say something that will prompt the person who made the mistake and get the play back on track again.
And you have to do this calmly so that the audience doesn’t suspect there was ever a problem to begin with.
What it sums up to…
…is that theatre is a very enjoyable experience. If you ever have the chance for it, give it a try.