Here late at the office, doing something so tedious you would shudder to hear of it. But these are the dues I owe, because last week I was involved in rehearsals and run-throughs of an excerpt of my script, "Wildflowers of the West," which was part of an evening of excerpts put on by New York Women in Film and Television.

And that was the very opposite of tedious. It was electrifying.

I have already smothered my actors and directors in thanks. During the full run-through of the whole script, I brought a spread of snacks which they found far too interesting and later, since my script involves the struggle over control of a health food company after the founder dies, I gave them all herbal tea and gift cards to Whole Foods. They seemed terribly moved. An actor from another reading caught wind of this, and came over and gave me his headshot.

So -- another cliche come to life in my life. Will work for food.

You wonder why they do it. Equity actors, busy, talented -- dare I say beautiful -- donating their time and talent to nights of unpaid rehearsals in preparation for a brief unpaid performance. I'm not an actor, but I've taken classes. And this is what I learned in class: the feeling you have when you're performing is not just wonderful, it's a thousand times better than the next best thing.

Labels: actors, Wildflowers of the West

posted by Elizabeth at 9:06 PM