We had our first preview tonight for Contention. Some friends came out to support which really meant a lot. Both Sarah and I were pretty keyed up all day about it. I haven't done a play in 7 years, I haven't had as many lines in a play since my senior year of high school, I was nervous.
The first scene in the show is our breakup, it's probably our most meaty scene where we get a lot of information out and go through a wide range of emotion. We began the show and about two pages in both of us came up blank. The lines just disappeared from our heads. We floundered for a bit then just stood in silence, wallowing in this ever elongating bloated pause. It's a cliche, forgetting your lines, but there is nothing like standing on a stage, under the lights, with an audience watching and having nothing in your head. Speechless. Anxious. Caught in perpetual panic. It's interminable.
In reality the pause wasn't that long, most people didn't notice, and we got back on track skipping three pages. A lot of content lost but it didn't have much of an effect on the show. After what felt like a huge mistake the rest of the show went smoothly. Sarah, Phil, and I were satisfied and the people that came responded to it.
Tonight was the first time we did the play start to finish. There's some work we need to do but putting it up in front of people for the first time felt great, felt like progress and potential.
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