Wait Until Dark #3
10/24/09
Wait until dark is a much more complicated play than I initially
thought...
I’m trying not to be too hard on myself, but damn sometimes I feel like brain surgeons have it better than I do! Maybe this past week has been especially difficult because I’ve been fighting off the flu, and of course it’s just plain difficult to combine that with juggling a full time job and rehearsals every night. No wonder why I’m having a hard time falling asleep. Listen to me complaining. I’m actually not as miserable as I sound, just a bit overwhelmed. It’s exciting to have a role this big. I’m just not used to it. The other day I remembered that I have to figure out where to put my water bottles back stage. I usually have a particular spot where I put my water backstage left, and one backstage right. Then it suddenly dawned on me, “oh! I don’t need my backstage water because I’ll never BE back stage! I’m ON stage for the entire show!” Well, except for the first scene, in which case, my water will reside in my dressing room. Wow!
I thought the most challenging thing about playing the role of Susy was figuring out how to portray a blind woman in the most believable way. That is the least of my worries; in fact, I think I have a good handle on it. I plan on doing more research on blindness, but at the moment I seem to be up to my eyeballs in dissecting the script. Perhaps this is what’s keeping me awake every night. You see, the play is basically about 3 con men that try and pull a fast one on Susy, but little by little, she figures out their scheme and eventually she turns the table on them. I have to go through the script with a fine-toothed comb and map out her thought process, as if I don’t know their scheme, but I DO know their scheme, but SUSY doesn’t. What???
Forget it. Just merely trying to explain this is going to keep me up all night.
Being in a “thriller” play is loads of fun! I get to act scared, be chased by a killer with a knife, crawl over a dead guy, go into a panic, break down and hysterically cry, I get to be angry and shout with rage… I also get to be in love and kiss my husband, and end the entire roller coaster ride in victory!