Audience Appreciation

Last night was a lifetime first -- I got applause/laughter on entrance. That's a brass ring I never thought I'd grab. I always get happy on the rare occasions when happens for other people, but didn't think I'd ever experience it myself. I picked a new downstage pose, thought up in the stage left bathroom (yeah, like you don't know from Bathroom Brilliance yourself) while the mirror was miraculously free. It worked.

So you would think that with such a wash of audience luuurve, I would have been full enough of Teh Me for the hated nerve jangle thing not to happen. It was intense enough that Elizabeth noticed it, and I hope the audience didn't. These nerve attacks are a new affliction that started with Merry Wives last fall, and I'm still working my way around it. I've been acting on and off since age 7, and I never until this past year experienced stage fright. I once read an essay by a seasoned Stratford Festival actor who went through a crippling phase of this that lasted several years, and he said it's not uncommon for veteran actors to hit a confidence wall in their early to mid 40s, and you just have to find your own way past it. I'm really, really working to get there.

Well, off to get some blinzes at Johnny D's before the matinee. Come to the show if you haven't already.