Show weeks are usually some of the most challenging weeks for me and so far, this week I wouldn’t consider to be one I have found particularly difficult. This could be because I have left school, or because I’m not the lead role, or simply because I’m just use to it. Who knows? What ever it was, it has made my life a lot easier.
Honestly, not being in school has relieved me from so much stress it unreal. Not having to worry about getting things wrong and realising that there can be more than one right answer to different problems is more than I learned from solving multi Pythag in maths lessons which resulted in nothing less than stress. Show week is an interesting one; things could be going brilliant one minute and a shipwreck the next, but just like everything else its how you handle the storm that really matters. In one incident when programming lights one of the movers decided to do its own thing and not stop spinning. Whilst working against the time this inconvenience had caused a great deal of stress to a member of the team. Watching how this member adapted and overcame this obstacle efficiently was a great experience for me as the end result was phenomenal and it just goes to show, in order to achieve something great, you have to suffer a little bit in the making.
The onstage performance was also a one of a kind experience for me because after performing in 76 productions this one was my first full length, different style production. This experience was made so much better as I got to explore the First World War from the perspective of the children which we don’t really hear about too much and being able to do this with one of my best friends performing along side me was so much fun. It really differed from my other shows I was in as we tackled more serious topics more head on such as death. This exposure has made the whole experience feel more real and therefore a lot easier to connect with as a performer which is a real important part of the process, developing and understanding your character as it becomes a part of you. As a result I feel this show holds some real value to me.
What I have enjoyed most about this show is working on something different as it has shown me a part of musical theatre I’m not use to seeing and I look forward to working on projects which may be similar or even completely different to this one.
-Ben Chane