Three days ago, I participated in Alex J. Cavanaugh's Blogfest, "The Top Ten Movie Countdown". I visited and commented on dozens of blogs and got a crazy number of comments here on the Back Porch. Seriously; more than I've ever had on a post before. I'm still trying to respond to all of them.
The month of April represents two rather large commitments I've made to writing. The first is the "Blogging from A to Z April Challenge", also co-hosted by the Ninja Captain Alex. (See the button in the right sidebar.) The premise is to write on April 1 (a Sunday) on a topic beginning with the letter "A". Then, on each weekday of the month, write on a subject with the rest of the letters of the alphabet, at the rate of one per day. There are literally HUNDREDS of bloggers signed up for this month-long event.
So, Mina Lobo at Some Dark Romantic and David Macauley at Brits in the USA, came up with the brilliant idea to have a reveal hop where people could preview the themes they were going to use for the A to Z Challenge.
I went through several possibilities for themes, but (think) I have settled on:
LIVE THEATRE!
I have loved acting my whole life. I started out college in a Musical Theatre Program. But I had self-esteem issues and could not bring myself to actually audition, which considering the line of work, could be a drawback. At the end of my first year, I was told that I should find something else to do, because I had no future in live theatre. And I listened to them. I switched to "business" (which pleased my mother to no end), lost heart for studying a subject that did not fulfill me, and wound up dropping out of college ... for 10 years.
Every job I got, my mother had her brother give me the "you need to do something more important than that" speech. (They weren't being intentionally mean.) Finally I had a job in the International Department of a local bank. I thought, finally they will approve. *vile buzzer sound indicating a negative* I decided I would not be able to progress much until I finished a degree, so I went back to college, and eventually did obtain a BS in Finance (magna cum laude).
One afternoon, I saw a sign up on a wall, telling of auditions for the play, "The Importance of Being Earnest". I thought, "I should go do that." Then I saw that the auditions were that afternoon. Immediately my mind came up with all sorts of reasons why NOT to audition: it's too soon, I'm not prepared...blah, blah, blah. Then I figured, what did I have to lose? If I sucked and the answer was "no", I'd be no worse of than I was at that moment.
I went. I auditioned. I got the part of Lady Bracknell.
Over the next 5-6 years I was involved with about 25-30 plays. Half of these probably were acting, the rest in various tech positions (light or sound board operators, stage hands, directing one time, etc). I still remember sitting at a light board one night before the show and having the stage manager come and hand me an envelope. "What is this," I asked. She responded, "Your check." I was stunned. "YOU MEAN I GET PAID FOR THIS???" How cool is THAT?!?!?!
So for the letters of the alphabet have play titles in which I have acted or teched, etc., I will write about those plays. On letters where I have not been involved with a play, I will write about one in which I would like to be involved, and/or maybe ideas for writing plays.
We'll all be finding out in about a week. Hope to see you there!
