Theatre Relationships

I would say I’m a very fortunate theatre lady. I’m working on some awesome shows, I go to an awesome theatre grad school, and the miraculous one of the bunch: I’m dating an awesome actor. Of course as typical as possible, we met from working on a show together, and so far it’s been nearly a year of “post-showmance.” However despite both being theatre people, we have VERY different perspectives and approaches on theatre.

As a start, we have different theatrical tastes. I love playwrights from the late 19th/early mid 20th century. Ibsen, Wedekind, Chekhov, Odets, and Williams are my five favorite playwrights of all time. To me, if I can direct “Spring’s Awakening” (not the musical, the original play), “Hedda Gabler”, “The Glass Menagerie”, and “Waiting for Lefty” in this lifetime, then I would be incredibly happy with my theatre life (although I’m assistant directing/stage managing 2 of them so I’m on my way). The types of plays I love I call revolutionary plays (which I feel these playwrights have created), since it’s plays like Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” and Odets’ “Awake and Sing!” that had paved the way for theatre we have today, that were so controversial back then. Whereas my boyfriend loves classic plays (Shakespeare in particular), Contemporary plays (Mamet in particular), and also loves doing sketch comedy scenes whenever he can. Which also means we always work on different shows at the same time.

We also have a VERY different perspective on theatre training. As shocking as this may be (especially from my last post), I’m a HUGE believer in educational training. I feel it opens more doors for growth and opportunities. Getting the training in a classroom from a professional with your peers is something that all theatre artists can benefit from, and in a school setting you are more likely to experience things you haven’t done before to grow as an artist (example: being a dramaturg for the first time at NYU really made me appreciate and understand theatre in a way I haven’t before). Whereas he feels that it’s better to just go out into the theatre world and gain experience by doing.

However we make it work since we not only find the time to spend together, but we appreciate each other’s interest and opinions. We talk about how his rehearsals in Shakespeare’s “A Winter’s Tale” is going, I talk about how “Waiting for Lefty” is going, and we move forward. We also aim to see Broadway and Off-Broadway shows within the other’s interest. For my birthday in July, we saw “A Streetcar Named Desire” and for his birthday we plan on seeing “Glengarry Glen Ross” so we can appreciate the other’s interest more. We also find we have some common ground in that respect as well. We both love Ibsen and Mamet and along with that, I tell him about the things I learn in my class ALL the time, and he always enjoys listening and even is looking into taking classes at a studio next year. So we have our mutual ground somewhere in the middle.

Plus a good thing about dating someone who is in the theatre world with you is that they understand the craziness of it. We both get when the other has a rehearsal or a show going on (although it does suck when we both have different shows up at the same time), so it’s comforting dating someone who not only understands the craziness of your schedule, but also can appreciate it and have their own crazy schedule as well. But more importantly than that even; we respect and appreciate each other for who we are, with all the differences and similarities, which is my favorite part even over our theatre backgrounds.