Happy 24th Birthday Now Go Play A Bear

On Tuesday, November 18th I received a two texts at 5:21 PM:

"Hello my friend"

"Would you like to make your tour debut this year lol"

Earlier that day I was enjoying a nice day off. I played with my dog, read some comics (Batman/Superman Worlds Finest is a wonderful series), and then left my house to go to a vocal class I had that night. I was stuck in traffic listening to My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade" when I received that text.

During the rehearsal period of Bears I knew I'd be the understudy for Cody and Ray. Because of that, I plotted out both their tracks in my script and had a solid idea of what to do for them. I naively assumed Ray was out since he mentioned he wasn't feeling well, so I immediately said yes to give me sick friend a break.

Then I was told I'm actually going on for Raven and my world shattered to a million pieces. I got to the theatre, went crazy trying to find my script, was in class for like 30 minutes, went home, and did my best to transcribe all of Raven's blocking and tried to learn her music from the staff performance of Bears from September.

Flash forward to earlier this morning and it's showtime. I'm not too nervous - I watched the YouTube video twice so obviously it was going to be a flawless two-show day with absolutely zero mistakes. And it was flawless...

...if you happen to ignore me messing up blocking multiple times, almost hugging Cody mid-song for no apparent reason, and blanking on "Dear Journal" and stop singing mid-show. Like I said, it was an absolutely flawless show that only became even more flawless during the second show.

Fast forward and I'm driving to the theatre, stuck in traffic again. Only instead of class it's time for a new play reading done with the Temple Playwriting class. I inevitability get there and have a great time. I get to read some plays with my friends, switching back-and-forth between stage directions and characters depending on the script. I even got cupcakes from Maya!

So was it a peaceful day? Absolutely not! Was it a confusing day? Kinda. Was it a slay of a day? Heck yeah! I got to wake up, perform two shows with my friends, go home, and then read new plays with my friends. It was a day full of theatre, fun, and silliness. What's better than that?