Let's work.

This morning, I woke at 7.30 am, took a shower, squeezed into tights and a dress, and drove down to a college to compete in the NATS Classical Competition (National Association of Teachers of Singing). By 9.30, I was warming up in French, and at 11.00 precisely, I sang in English, French, and Italian for two judges, the lovely accompanist, and the room chair. After a quick stop for lunch, I raced back to the building to meet up with some friends from a vocal camp, and soon after, ran down the stairs to check the finals list. Not making it, my mother and I left, drove back home, and while she was in her office on her computer, likewise, I was doing the same, catching up on Youtube subscriptions and trying not to cry. At 4.00, we left the house yet again, this time driving to a local theatre to pick up a script for a recently cast show I will be in, only to find that the scripts hadn't come in yet, and to be presented with paperwork that only made me more excited to rehearse. We made a quick stop back home, as I had forgotten my glasses, and turned back around to head into the city. After walking around an enormous mall, purchasing much too much, and waiting for a glass elevator, my mother and I walked down to a restaurant across from the theatre in which we would later see a show, and ate a delicious meal about 6 feet away from Tom Hanks, who was with his son, son's girlfriend, and who we guessed was his father. While talking excitedly on the phone to my father about the incidence, we made our way to the theatre across the way and went to see Working the Musical, keeping our eyes peeled for more celebrities. Seeing none, I let myself be lulled into the beauty of a musical after a day of disappointments. I suppose this is what life as an actor or singer or dancer is bound to be like, only with much more swearing, many more tears, and 100 "no"s to a single "yes". It's all about the job. One audition after another, one failed competition after another. There's no escape for us performers. People, normal people, go to the theatre to escape from real life; to delve into a world of make believe and pretend, where there will always be a resolution after the standard hour and a half. I reckon we actors must accept the "no"s and the tears and the countless disappointments and learn to trust ourselves and be confident in our talents and, as someone has to be a janitor, someone has to be an actor.