Yesterday...or the day before?...anyway, I was watching some in depth program on tv about theatre. Everything backstage. And I do mean everything.

It was beautiful. Absoloutely beautiful.

Inspiring.

I was watching these two work this scene.

First the actress in a dimly lit room, open windows the only source of light, badly furnished like a theatre storeroom, the director sitting nearby watching her recite her lines. Sometimes she would stand and go behind the actress, following her intectly, correcting tiny mistakes.

Second, the actress and the actor working it on a thrown together set with no backdrop in a flourescently lit gym with a panel of stage workers: the director, assisstant director, and the various henchmen that accompany them.

They were watching the two do the scene, correcting and restarting every few moments.

A brief, flittering conference between the two actors, conversing about something in the scene. The actor blushes as the director teases him. They start again.

I don't remember the works. Sharp, brisk, scared slightly, passionate. He loves her. She loves him. They are jumpy. Wary.

She wanders away from him with her clipped, short speech. He, standing, is nervous and watches with big bright eyes.

She turns, runs at him and throws her arms around his neck. Tightly, briefly, they grasp each other tightly and then she runs, flits off like a scared animal.

And he, he slowly crumples into a silently weeping crouch on his knees.

"Cut."

The director stands from her table as the actress wanders aimlessly back on stage, looking forlorn and moved by the piece she just created.

The actor stands, back to the camera, still crying. The director hands him a tissure and puts her arm over his shoulder, murmuring consolingly as he blows his nose.

...

That was so inspiring. People who could act so passionately they believed what they were doing, were seriously affected by what they were doing.

But one must be careful about losing one's self in a character.

It is not healthy.

Maintain your identity, my friend.

I shall. You, too.

.

Rosie.

Before&After