If you don’t work in the theater, you may not know that it’s imperative that actors belong to their union. Without the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), there would be nothing to protect actors from unscrupulous producers who might wish to have them rehearse for ten-hour days, or rehearse for hours without a break for a meal or to go to the bathroom, or give them only six hours in which to go home, learn their lines, and sleep. As it is, professional actors that belong to the union work six days a week in nine and a half hour shifts, with 90 minutes for a lunch or dinner break and a ten-minute break for the bathroom every 90 minutes of rehearsal.
Another thing you may not know is that acting is hard work. Not because of remembering all the lines and movement. Acting is physically hard work; actors rehearse (often physically difficult) scenes over and over again, and are called upon to do gymnastics, stage combat, singing and dancing, long speeches in iambic pentameter, large roles in plays that last for three hours or more, and rehearse hours of comic shtick all day long. Acting is also emotionally hard work. Good actors are not “pretending.” Good actors are using their human empathy to feel the emotions that fit the needs of the character. Brain studies have proven that what actors feel while acting is every bit as real as what we all feel in real life. The difference is that in real life, most of us don’t have to feel the feelings necessary to good drama every day: dizzying love, obsessive lust, all-encompassing jealousy, or feverish, heartless rage. Couple that with rehearsal halls that can be dank, filled with mold or dust, have concrete floors, and with varying abilities for ventilation, heating and cooling, and actors can have some very long, tiring days while in rehearsal. I know this. When I was acting professionally more often, this was part of my way of life.
These days, I spend more time on the “other side of the table,” working on the production team. My job is as a voice and/or dialect coach, which means I help the actors understand their text, know how to pronounce the words in their text, work with them on the verse and imagery of their text (if it is written in pre-twentieth century verse), teach them dialects if necessary, and coach them in vocal fundamentals such as breathing, enunciation, vocal resonance, finding vocal power, working in outdoor theaters, and offering them choices in how to say their words to garner the most effective character choices. It’s a challenging job, but I love it.
But I’ve never coached four shows in rehearsal at the same time before. Thank god I’m working with a wonderful assistant vocal coach, so we can be in two different rehearsals at the same time. But still. There are no unions for voice coaches. So my typical days in rehearsal last at least nine hours. Sometimes more, if I’m attending production meetings (meetings where all the designers and technical folks share information to get the “backstage” job done) for all four shows.
Last night our rehearsal ended at 7:30 PM, after which there was a Company barbecue, facilitated by the fact that our rehearsal day didn’t start until 1PM today. But with my usual luck, rather than luxuriate in the empty morning, I trotted to an endodontist for a root canal. From there I went to rehearsal and the 8-hour day juggling two different shows began.
I am not complaining. I am just exhausted. Some of my exhaustion may come from the two fourteen-hour days of driving, followed by the anxiety of starting a new job with new people, my dread of having the root canal, and of course, the altitute. But these are long days for the young people in the cast, and I’m going on 51.
But here’s the thing. Boulder is an incredibly beautiful and wonderful place. It is a real college town, with a very cool vibe. It is a hippy town, with a laid back attitude. It is a University town, with lots of really smart people exchanging complicated ideas. And it is in the foothills of the incredibly gorgeous Rocky Mountains. Rocky Mountain National Park is a half hour away.
I can live with this.
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