Crazy, right?
It all began not too long ago when Katie and I were working at the Children's Museum. We were doing four shows (all of them being the Three Little Pigs) and we both knew each of the roles. We decided we would "True West" it (which meant flipping a coin to see who would play which part a la John C. Reilly and Phillip Seymour Hoffman's version of True West).
Then, jokingly, we said "Fuck The Three Little Pigs, let's just perform some Sam Shepard for these kids. Ha! Those kids wouldn't know what hit 'em". Little did we know a seed had been planted!
A couple of days later I got an e-mail from the artistic director of one of the fringe theatre companies in town. He said they were having a fundraiser called the "Live Your Dream Festival". The premise of it was that they wanted actors, singers, and musicians to do something they would never get cast in professionally. Whether it be a man playing Lady Macbeth or a white girl singing a song from Aida.
YES.
Katie and I promptly signed up, enlisting Terry to direct us.
We got together and read through the entire play in order to pick a scene to do. During this reading we had an epiphany: "Let's just do the whole goddamn play. And let's do it in our apartment".
We'd always talked about "apartment theatre" and how much fun it would be to just use our own place as performance space. And True West was IDEAL for this sort of setup.
So we did.
There's more, though.
The Live Your Dream Festival was a week ago (Sunday and Monday night). On Sunday night we did the scene as we had been rehearsing it all along (Me as Lee and Katie as Austin). And on Monday we switched roles. I had never rehearsed as Austin and she had never rehearsed as Lee. All we did was memorize the lines.
And somehow. It worked. We were forced to play it moment by moment. Without preparation we had nothing to fall back on but each other. And it was goddamn thrilling! I had no idea what Katie was going to do and she had no idea what I was going to do and it just felt right.
It went so well, in fact, that we decided (during celebratory drinks afterwards) we would do this for REAL. We'd learn both parts and flip a coin to decide who would play which role.
I'd chalked it up to drunken ambition until Katie and I had the following text exchange the morning after:
Katie - We still doin this crazy thing?
Me - I think so! I just woke up.
Katie - me too. I just mean should I start working on it? it wasn't just a dream?
Me - I think it's our destiny
And with that we had four days to learn the lines for the opposite part. I started dreaming in lines from the play. Waking up thinking about a different scene everyday. Feverishly whispering the words to myself and frantically playing back voice recordings in hopes that I would just absorb it all.
But I wanted to do it. Just to see if I could! Just to see if WE could.
Saturday night rolled around and we had somewhere between 15 and 20 people show up for the show. It was so inspiring! To see these people coming to our apartment to support us in this completely over the top endeavor. These people who wanted to see if we could actually pull this shit off!
Terry asked "Who would like to flip the coin?" and Mary-Liz (a co-founder of another theatre company in Boston) raised her hand with a quiet authority and said "I will".
She flipped it. And of COURSE it landed on the side where I would be playing Austin and Katie would be playing Lee:
I should add one other thing. We decided on a safe word if we forgot a line (this was only allowed if we were playing the parts we hadn't rehearsed). If we forgot a line we would say "Ding!" and Terry would feed it to us.
What I can say about that night is it's one of those most exhilarating performances I've ever been a part of. The stakes were SO HIGH because we had no idea what was going on. All we knew is we had to tell this story. And we knew the story. And we knew each other. And we knew these characters.
So we did it. We got through it (and with minimal dings!). And we were there for each other. Saving each other if we couldn't remember a line. Powering forward even if we weren't sure what was going to happen next.
It was a blur, but I loved it. And the audience was brilliant. They were so supportive and right along for the ride. The power went out because I plugged in too many toasters and Katie spilled beer all over the place and jelly got all over the floor. But that's what made it great. The uncertainty. And the things that went wrong or could have gone wrong.
I felt so lucky. That I had all of these friends around me who were willing to let me do this. Who were willing to play with me! It made me feel full.
The next day Katie and I played the parts as we'd rehearsed them:
And you know what? It wasn't as chaotic or crazy as the night before, but I still had a blast. I realize...I love those characters. I loved getting to say Sam Shepard's words. I loved getting to see things from both of their perspectives. Lee and Austin were probably my favorite characters to play...ever. Maybe one day I will go into more depth about what I think about the play or the characters or blahhhdy blah, but to be honest...I don't want to intellectualize it right now. All I know is I got to express something as those two guys that I don't ever really get the chance to express in my day to day life. Something that felt true to me. And that's what it's about, I think.
This weekend I learned that cheap, exciting, and accessible theatre is COMPLETELY possible. All you need is the drive to do it. And friends to support you. That's all. I got more fulfillment from performing for less than 20 people in my apartment then I've gotten in a long, long time. And I think that's pretty special.
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