It's just about that time again. Stanford's been having a plethora of assorted drama productions over the past week and will continue to do so in to next week.

Last night I went to go see an interesting musical called Pinkertons which had some good acting around a pretty convoluted plot. The play itself is an undergrad thesis project so it gets a little leeway for the plot. On a positive note, it did have me thinking when I left although my thoughts were more of confusion than anything else.

A run of Twelfth Night is going on this week as well and while I was pondering which show to reserve my ticket for, I tried to determine which night I thought would be the best using my experience as an actor. Shows run Wednesday through Sunday at 8PM with an additional late showing at 10.30PM Friday. The first night is either great or poor. Regardless of whether I wanted to take that chance or not, I was going to Pinkertons on Wednesday so that was out. The last night is also either great or poor depending on the outlook of the cast. Are they so sad to see it go that it's depressing? Are they sick of it by the end of five days and six shows? I don't want to take that chance. The rest of the 8PM shows tend not to get worse than the night before but there's no telling how much better they'll be or how they've been the night before. Finially, the odd-show-out was the 10.30 show on Friday. Late shows, especially after a show earlier, can be draining but the fact that this is a shakespeare company gives me hope. These kinds of shows (also included are early shows after late shows) really seperate the actors from those that are just faking it. No matter how sick, tired, angry or half-dead the actor is, it will appear as though they've just come back from their 16 hour nap and afternoon at the spa. The rest... you'll simply be able to tell that they're sick, tired, angry or half-dead. It's interestingly satisfying to get out on stage when you're tired from a show the night before and just have it all melt away. Anything and everything for the audience.

I miss it. I want to be up there.