My time at high school was a friggin' disaster. Any friendship or relationship that I had I burned to the ground with my own paranoia and critical self awareness. Quite frankly, when I arrived at Runshaw, it was daunting. I had no idea where I was going with my life, if I'd get on with anyone, if I'd actually manage to survive the week.
I had a pretty good idea of the pressure I was going to be under. The parents were a nightmare as always, with their high expectations and competitive nature. Woe betide me if I failed to get straight A's or became anything other than a Doctor or an equally prestigious member of society.
I also had a pretty good idea about the academic rigmarole I was going to put myself through.
Chemistry, Christ.
Biology, For feck's sake.
English, SNORE.
Spanish, ME ODIO!
but there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
Drama and Theatre Studies.
The parents had already made their feelings perfectly clear.
"It won't get you anywhere." "Acting isn't a career." "You're not exactly talented." "Why not try something a little more academic?" "Keep it as a hobby."
But for once I was determined to do something for myself. YEARS and YEARS I had been under their thumb, playing the role of dutiful daughter and obeying their every whim.
At the end of the day, it would be me sitting through 13 and a half hours of covalent bonding, glycolisis, Hawthorne and conjugating verbs a week. I needed a resbite and an escape.
At the end of the day, that was what Drama was.
What it had been for the past 10 years.
The Wednesday afternoon in September 2007 that I met The Players was easily one of the best of my life. Their immediate acceptance and warmth made me feel at ease for the first time in my life and allowed me to be completely inhibited in the way that I behave around other people.
They have removed nearly all of my social awkwardness and shyness and their continued sunny disposition and light hearted attitudes have helped to lift me out of great big black holes of depression and self doubt.
They are truly brilliant people, and the curtain is coming down on our time together. (Feel free to cringe at that cliche metaphor, by all means.)
This is a blog not about me, but about the last few weeks that we have left together, where I can post whimsical anecdotes as a tribute and long lasting memoriam of the amazing time we've had together.
Without sounding pretentious, Oscar Wilde sums the experience up kinda nicely:
"I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being."
Word Oscar. Word.
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