Let's make friends.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am currently involved in two musicals and a play. One musical with school, one with a group 20 minutes away, and the play with a group 15 minutes away. It's always hard to go into big gatherings of people, regardless of whether you know someone or not. I find that with school shows, being an underclassman has the disadvantage that all the 'cool' people are the leads and everyone is talking to each other and having a grand ball while the group of 'chorus nerds' sit together chatting. Parallel to the away from home shows, where everyone knows everyone in the cast but you, and you're just too shy to say anything and end up sitting alone reading a book. Personally, I always have a fear of not being accepted into a cast and being miserable at rehearsals. However, today, with the first rehearsal for The Importance of Being Earnest, there was a different vibe. See, the interesting part of this story comes at the end, so I'll spare you the details of the beginning and middle. In a nutshell, we read through the script, marked in a few cuttings, and introduced ourselves. Now, when we all stood up to leave, instead of the two guys I didn't know going off to their cars and driving home, and instead of the 4 girls I hadn't properly met walking out to dinner together, I was greeted warmly by the first guy, who apologised for forgetting my name, and eventually, I learned the name of each cast member. Side note: I've always considered myself a fairly shy person, most especially around people I haven't met. Anywho, it made me think about the ways we treat other people at the most simple of events, such as this read through rehearsal. Most people, if they have friends near them, will immediately, naturally gossip to that friend and disregard the newbie, either too deep into their conversation, or under the belief that someone else will 'entertain' the person no one knows. But that little percentage of people who don't fall under the previously mentioned category, will ask the newbie to join their group of friends, and try to make them feel part of the family. Now, I'm not saying that the people around have to take responsibility, I do know that one has to be open to make new friends or to fully be accepted into a group. And I've realised, through my experiences with joining a cast, and also with directing shows myself, that if you don't put yourself out there, expecting to meet new people and make new bonds, and to overall, have fun, you won't have fun, and you won't meet and make friends with new people. I suppose all I'm trying to get across, is that in order to have a good time, and to make connections with people, and all in all, to be a thoughtful person, we all have to open up and put ourselves out in the crowd. In order to save the drowning person, someone has to throw the rope, and the one in the water has to grab onto it.