The Show Must Go On

My time in NYC last week was a whirlwind of activity – my experience with Manscape: The Musical was the perfect first acting experience in the city.  I was working with wonderful, well-respected actors as well as people I knew.  That, combined with the fact that I was playing a small supporting character, kept me from being overwhelmed and nervous.  The producer of the Algonquin Theatre even asked me for my headshot and resume!

I was so exhausted that I even slept on the plane ride back to North Carolina, which I’ve never been able to do.  After I made it back, I had class (where Laura Henry – the director of Picnic – lovingly told me that I had until 6:30 to get ‘untired’).  Since the two fourth year shows this term, Picnic and St. Joan, have the same run schedule and won’t be able to see each other’s shows fully produced, the St. Joan cast came to see a preview of Picnic Wednesday night.  That’s where the excitement began.

This was our first time performing Picnic for an audience, and it wasn’t a regular audience; it was our classmates and friends who laughed more boisterously and clapped more loudly than the average audience.  It’s safe to safe that overall, adrenaline was high in the cast.  There is an explosion about half way through the first act, and in the commotion I took a hard elbow to the temple!  It hurt so badly that I blacked out for just a second. Luckily, one of the 3 scenes in the play that I’m not in followed the explosion scene and I had time to recoup (i.e., cry a little and take some Advil) before I had to be out on stage again.  My head was throbbing and I had a pump knot, but I was so excited for my friends to see the show it was easy to put it aside and get back into the groove of the show, until…

The VERY NEXT scene when one of the boys throws a weighted foam bread loaf across the stage at me, and in his excitement he threw it really hard.  Guess where it hit me?  Right in the temple.  Yeah, definitely a problem.  Of course it hurt, but it frustrated me more than anything.  Two hits to the head in one night?  I stepped outside to let out all the tears during intermission, because the last thing I wanted was all of that emotion, unrelated to the circumstances of the play, to come out during the emotional third act.

Laura found out I was crying and came out to tell me I should go home and rest my head.  This just made me more upset!  “But….*sniff sniff*….this is the ONLY TIME…..*wail*…my friends will get to SEEEEE MEEEEEEE!”  Finally I convinced her I should continue with the show, and one of the girls in the cast rubbed some Tiger Balm on my temples.  She had the best of intentions, but because I’d been crying the balm made its way through the tributaries of tears into my eyes.

So now I have a throbbing head and I can’t see.  Great.  Ready for the dance in Act II?

Somehow I made it through, and not only did I make it through, but received compliments from faculty and students that it was the most specific work they’d ever seen me do.  I’m not sure what to think about that, but I’ll take it!

--Jasmine Anne Osborne