I just got back from a long weekend– endless one might say— and feel so grateful, so lucky, so proud to be a part of such an incredible and talented group of artists.
I’m fresh off a three-day weekend with these awesome people, high off
three nights of performing and very sleep deprived, so I’m feeling
particularly mushy, just forewarning you!
I think back to exactly four years ago in May when, on a whim, I responded to a Craigslist posting for auditions for a new play by a new company I’d never heard of led by two young dudes I’d never heard of in a theater I’d never heard of (that was so inconspicuous I almost missed the audition entirely because I could not find the building– how different my life would be had I given up and gone home that windy night in San Francisco). I’d never heard of the company because it didn’t exist until that very play. I’d never heard of these two dudes because this was their first venture into theater making together. I had trouble finding the theater because it was on the second floor of an office building with no signs. But I went anyway, got cast and did the play anyway. Somewhere inside me I trusted this was a good decision. I trusted these guys, this show, this “company” despite all the reasons on the surface not to (producer/directors with no credits, a nondescript theater on a shady corner of downtown SF, etc) But when I walked into that black box theater on Sunday June 3, 2007 that first rehearsal, looking at the rows of blue cushioned seats, the fake brick wall of a previous show’s set, a stack of neatly bound scripts next to these two dudes I’ve illogically decided to trust with the next month and a half of my summer, I distinctly remember feeling so… happy.
I had just put my acting on hold while finishing college that I was in desperate need to be in a room just like that. I felt like I belonged. It felt right. I knew. And now, four years later, I look back to that moment I decided to follow my instincts and trust and I realize that that one action yielded so much, which has enriched my life in so many ways it can make me cry just thinking about it now: staring in literally dozens of plays, producing my own work for the first time, producing and developing new work for the stage, the web, a blog, film, directing for the first time, writing sketch comedy (something I never thought I could do), an incredible boyfriend, leading my own LA theater company with him and friends who are like family.
Very inspiring and beautiful post Nina.