I Can’t Make It To Rehearsal, I Have Rehearsal

As the girl on the saltbox said, when it rains, it pours.

I am overcommitted. After a dry spell in which I was not doing any acting — professional or community theater — I find myself with two Fringe Festival shows, one staged reading, and one professional role all between now and the end of August. I will be in rehearsal pretty much every day, and in some cases have two different shows on the same day — and will miss rehearsals for another in order to fit it all in. All of my directors are fine with the arrangement — I told them how busy I was before accepting any of the parts (which, amazingly, were all pre-casting offers) — but it will be an endurance test.

I am enjoying each of the projects, which are all very different. Some are with people I have worked with before (one Fringe role is actually a remounting of a show I did last fall) and some are with people I have aspired to work with for some time. One is a professional role with an up-and-coming company that will be the most significant work I’ve done to date. Several of the roles will open the way to future opportunities.

But even as I enjoy the whirlwind, I find myself looking forward to August 25 — the day after Closing Night of the last of the shows. I am so busy that I feel like I am trudging through this overstuffed calendar not to do these shows but to have done them — to have them beneath my belt and on my resume.

It is hard for me to say “no” — in part because I am getting chances to do many fun and interesting things, and in part because I am still very new at this and have yet to break through into the professional realm in the way I hope to. But I think this time, I may have said “yes” a bit too often.