The Call of the Stage

It is funny once you have tasted life on the stage there is really no going back. The call of the stage is with you and thoughts of it never really go away. I had an amazing time on the stage below many years ago and it's bigger brother next door when I was in "Spend Spend Spend", a musical about Vic Nicholson who won the football pools, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

There is just something about acting that is magical and special and once you have a passion for the stage it never really ever leaves you. The power of seven hundred and fifty pairs of eyes on you gives you a feeling that is hard to describe. You from a bond with the audience that is gives you energy like you have never had before and when you take your bow you give it all back and a warmth comes over you and you feel humble and exhausted as they thank you with their hands.

Acting is not something to do lightly and just for fun, it very serious and takes a lot of dedication and time. Even harder to master is the ability to be able to act and do it well, and here is the secret that took me three years to learn, there are no tricks you just do it. 

Sounds simple until you see someone wanting to act and thinking they are good and failing so badly. It is not about being good or your desire to want to do it, have those thoughts and you will fail. You can't influence what people think or feel, all you can do is be true to yourself and the character you play. Think you are good and they will see how bad you are. Lie and they will see the lie. On a stage you are unmasked and people see all of you. You can't hide anything, the trick is not to care.

Getting to the point were you can open your heart, your loves and fears to hundreds of people isn't easy and can be quiet painful. You have to peel off your own everyday protective layers, one by one and discover who you are. Stripping everything away until you are completely venerable and not scared to be you.  Once you have reached that point, and only then, can you create a new character by putting on new layers that make the person you are playing real, derived from the character you interpret from the script.

I have seen people think they can act because they say understand it is, then I have watched them on stage on their own, with maybe forty people watching and two hundred empty seats, and they fall apart and fail. I will say this again it is all about doing it and nothing else. It is all magic, a black art that you just something you have do and not worry about. It is kin to love in that you do it and don't have to think about what it is, and like love you just you can't stop doing it.

Like any thing that you love or are passionate about those feeling and desires never go away. My love of the acting and theatre is strong today as it has always been. Sometimes life changes and not in ways your might want that stop you doing what you dream of in life but that doesn't change how you feel deep down. Those things matter as much as they always have but you have to suppress them for the sake of others. One day I going to return to the stage because I know deep down it is where I belong.