Truth in Monday Musings

That's me, photobombing my two long-time thespian buddies, Kimberly and  Elizabeth Beck, as we get ready for our last performance of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

I completed another play.  I wish I had kept a list of all the plays I had been in since my Freshman in High School, but alas, I have not.  I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say the number is just over or close to 100.  I've been performing for close to fifty years (age 14 to 63) and averaging 2 to 3 productions a year.  Some years there have as many as 5, others years none.  So 100 is not an unreasonable guess.  

This play was very well cast, with some very dynamic performers in key roles, and even people at the top of their game in minor roles.  Like The Addams Family, I was in last year, they were very fortunate in getting just the perfect person for each part.  Conner Griffin was the ideal RP McMurphy, highly energetic and engaging.  Julianna Lacefield set her normally sweet personality aside and became the cold tyrant that is Nurse Ratched.  It would have been hard to come up with a better Chief Bromden than Duke Shiva Nanan.  Benjamin's friend, Brittany Burkett, was a tour de force as Billy Bibbitt.  Everyone was quite extraordinary.

For myself, just my own experiences as an actor, the play experience ranks as fair to middling (AGAIN - JUST MY ACTING EXPERIENCE, THE PLAY ITSELF WAS EXCELLENT).  The quick costume changes were tough on this old dude, as was the fall I had to take.  I played four characters (AIDE WARREN, AIDE TURKEL, TECHNICIAN, DOCTOR SPIVEY) that were consolidated into two characters.  The acting wasn't hard, although I had to be careful not to be too funny as not to distract from the serious content of the play.  Making sure I correctly changed in time and had the right costume on was a real pain.  Most plays I've been have had weeknight rehearsals, but this one had regular Saturday rehearsals. Truth in Monday Musings?  I did not like that all.  I will have to think hard about participating in plays that routinely have Saturday rehearsals, especially without Benjamin.  This is his Senior Year, and if I'm going to spend that much weekend time in a play, I would rather it be with him.

After a decade or so in plays together, Kimberly and I finally had parts where we dialogue together, both playing aides at the mental institution.

Here's Kimberly with the brilliant actress, Julianna Lacefield, who did a fantastic star turn as the bureaucratic and cruel Nurse Ratched.

Community theatre is fun, and it has been a great pleasure and a source of relief from my accounting career, which is rather bloodless and dull.  But it makes no money and is not providing a transition away from being able to completely retire from accounting.

Truth in Monday Musings?

I am not too bad as an actor/writer, but I am monumentally terrible as a self-promoter.

I would rate myself as a B in writing but as a D in self-promotion.  Although my grammar is not perfect, I think I tell fast-moving and interesting tales.  And I do some things to promote my books, but what I do is not very consistent or successful.  I had my books on display throughout the play, but made no sales, not even to fellow cast members.  If I can't figure out how to get more reviews on my books online, they are never going to take off.  They determine where they place your book based on sales and reviews.  Without reviews, no one will ever see the books online unless they are specifically looking for them.

I would rate myself as an A in acting but as an F in ever making money off of it.  I have been completely lost all my life as to how to do that.  I saw a thing about extras for a nearby Stephen King movie (Dr. Sleep), but I found out way too late to do anything about it.  Of course, just being an extra is not quite what I'm after, but at least it would make a little money. With books, I can at least pretend to self-promote.  With acting, I don't even have the pretense at self-promotion.

I would rate myself as an A+ as a voice talent.  I know that sounds like Trumpian-level conceit, but it's the truth.  I can read out loud as well as anybody on the planet.  What I don't have are the technical skills to build my own sound studio to do recordings.  So it remains a dream deferred, but what could be my best chance to make money to lead out of accounting,  And I do nothing about it.

More Truth in Monday Musings - 

I need to lose weight and get my blood pressure under control.  For that, I need to concentrate on myself for a while, get a good structure and routine going.    That means minimizing my outside commitments, particularly in the evenings, until I can get this straightened out.  How long will that take?  Maybe a few months, perhaps a year or more.  I'm not sure.  But when I do come out of it, I want to come out stronger and more confident.

I will continue to write and try to figure out ways to self-promote.  Heck, I might even figure out a sound studio (with Benjamin's help)!

Well, this has turned into to one of my longer posts.  Oh, well.  Like all of my posts, some will be your cup of tea, and some won't.  I have a feeling this will be one of my lower viewed posts.

But that's okay.  I had my say.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait