I am a theatre nut. Or at least I was. Back in 2003 I began to audition for local community theatre productions around my town. I'm lucky that my town is full of community theatres and I was never without a show to work on. I had two things working in my favor. The first being I was willing to do anything involved in the production. People like me are in short supply because most who are involved with theatre tend to fill a niche and they refuse to do anything else. You have your standards, the lighting guy, sound guy, the diva, the gay diva, the director, the chorus member, the stage manager, the set builder, etc. But the rarity is the one who is willing to fill any hole the production needs. That was me. Because of this I became well known throughout the local theatre scene. This was my social outlet. In reality it was my way to search for women. That's beside the point. But it also gathered a large group of friends as well. Many of whom I still hang out with today.
The second thing I had going for me was the fact I had a penis. That is to say that I was a man in theatre. Basically this means that many shows I tried out for, especially shows that included more than five male roles, I almost was guaranteed a role. This is because five males is the average male turn out to auditions. Rarely will you get more and when you do it's for a popular male heavy show like "1776". We did that a couple of years back and 12 men showed up at the audition along with 12 women. There are 22 male roles and 2 female roles. So anyway I was able to work on stage when I wanted and back stage when I wanted. This is a nice perk to have. The down side is the fact that I was going show to show without much of a break.
The problem arose when I had been doing theatre almost constantly since the fall of '03. I seriously went from the fall of '03 to the spring of '08 with no more than a two week break between shows. At first this wasn't a problem. The few times I would end a show without another lined up I would start to feel the itch just about a week and half after the previous show ended. This was true until late 2006. I had begun to direct and I was seeing how much work it was. The itch became lighter. By late 2007 I was being begged to work on shows and asked because I didn't try out like people expected me to.
I want to make this clear right now. I may sound like I think I'm the best actor that ever graced the boards but this is far from the truth. The only reason people were asking me and begging me to do shows was not because I was talented but because as I mentioned I had a penis and I could remember my lines. Most of the time anyway. I carry no delusions. I know I'm mediocre at best.
Anyway, as I said my love affair with theatre had begun to wane. It also helped that I finally found a woman. I do owe theatre a debt because that is where I met my future wife. This no doubt aided in my disillusionment.
Why I post this today is because there are a lot of good theatre going on right now. But I'm not sure I'm ready to go back, even just to watch a show. Because of time constraints I cannot do theatre now anyway. So I fear going back will make me want to start, and because I can't I will have issues. I don't know. We shall see. I'll keep you posted.
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