If you have ever participated in theatre, you will know that the cast and crew are your family. Sometimes, you may not want them to be, but you know they are. You also know that the space soon becomes your home away from home. You start spending so much time there that you basically do everything there but sleep, and sometimes you do that too.
If this isn’t the case for you, there’s nothing wrong with that; you’re just missing out on one of the best parts of theatre. Having the theater be part of your life is just an amazing choice, in general, but truly living in it makes the experience so much better. I recommend that you don’t just do one thing in the theatre, but you try multiple things such as acting, lighting, assistant directing (if that’s an option), tech or even stage managing. All of these things, and more, give you so many options and really open you up to what theatre is truly about. It also makes you a very well rounded person.
When you have a better understanding about what theatre is truly about you can make it your home. It’s all about knowing what you’re doing there as well as wanting to be there. When you feel this way about the theatre it truly becomes somewhere you can be yourself. The people there don’t tend to judge you because they’re probably just as weird as you are.
If you really dig theatre, like I do, then you understand that it’s just the place you long to be most of the time. It’s a happy or safe place as some may say. You feel comfortable and happy when your either on stage, behind the curtain, or you have a really neat view of the audience from the booth. You give me the chance and I’ll be in the theatre all day, just because I love the space. It’s like a home in a sense that each theatre has its own smell, and you know your instantly home when you walk in and inhale the smell of your favorite theatre.
There’s nothing like preforming on your favorite stage, or visiting a new one, but you have this connection with it no matter what. I may never preform on Broadway, but I can fully remember what each one looked like from the shows that I have seen. And even those spaces felt like home to me because its where magic truly does happen.
