Near may be better than far but it still isn't there...

“Near may be better than far but it still isn’t there..”

Being a musical theatre lover, quotes from a musical have a tendency to start relating quite closely to life; sometimes a little too closely for comfort.

We’re closing in on the end of the semester, which means summer is getting closer! But it also means scheduling classes for next semester, starting to look towards finals, and for me, finishing the show at the Schuster!

I’m currently rehearsing Noises Off, a British farce comedy about a play within a play. I was a little nervous coming back to rehearsal after not being on stage since last semester, but I cannot even say how happy I am to be back. After stage managing A Tuna Christmas last semester, I knew how much it made me miss performing, but this just brought that right back to life.

Rehearsals have been so much fun. Never have I been in a show with so much action going on without words. I know that sounds sort of confusing… but if you come to see it (opening April 23rd!), I promise it will make so much more sense. Act I finds us- the cast of Noises Off, rehearsing for the show our characters will be performing in, Nothing On.

Act II finds us a month into the run of the show, and the audience no longer sees not what goes on “on-stage,” but the action going on behind the scenes. If you think that sounds boring, you could not be more wrong. True to life, the backstage drama can be even more.. well, “dramatic” than what’s going on on stage.
Finally, the front of the stage is back in view as we are reaching the end of our tour in Nothing On.

I was slightly skeptical about this whole setup of performing a “show within a show,” but the more we rehearse the more excited I am getting about it! I play Belinda Blair, who plays “Flavia” in Nothing On, and I am starting to absolutely fall in love with her as a character. She is a gossip queen who loves to feel like she’s in control, and begins to run into problems when she works with characters who are just as bull-headed as she is.

We’ve been rehearsing for about three weeks, and have the entire show blocked (or planned out) as of yesterday. That is great since now we have just under a month to clean and polish everything to be ready for opening night!

If you’re in the area at the end of April you should definitely come check it out at the Schuster Theatre, I’ll probably write more about it later, but for now I should go get some sleep to be rested for rehearsal and classes tomorrow!