AS someone who is naturally quiet, I have had to get used to the look of obvious surprise on people’s faces when I tell them that I am a drama student.
This is often followed by an “Oh, don’t you get nervous?” and the simple answer is ‘no’.
Believe it or not, being onstage is one of the areas of my life where I become uninhibited. It’s where I’ve made some of my best memories too.
I have loved performing since I understood what the word meant and throughout the years I have wracked up plenty of embarrassing moments from behind the scenes and centre stage.
My first memorable incident happened in Grade R.
I thought I would be really cool that day and brought my fake phone to school to show my friends. We weren’t allowed such high-tech gadgets so I kept it tightly under wraps.
All had been going smoothly and I thought I would make it through the day scot free but, unfortunately for me, my phone mistakenly rang during our rehearsal of Itsy Bitsy Spider.
My stomach dropped as I waited for someone to tell the teachers. Needless to say, they did, and I got into huge trouble. The taste of soap remains familiar to me but, luckily it didn’t do anything to quash my love of the stage.
In Grade 3, my dramatic history was marked again. My school was putting on a production of Peter Pan and I was supposed to be one of the Red Indians but I desperately wanted to be a pirate because, in my head, they were just more awesome so I asked the teachers and they said yes. Success.
I put my eight-year-old all into rehearsing. I scrubbed the decks with vigorous ‘pirateness’ and served Captain Hook with honour. Then, disaster struck.
One of the other pirates and I were making too much noise and we were taken out of rehearsal for the day. I was beyond myself and thought it was the end of my career.
However, my inner teacher’s pet kicked in and after sitting with our fingers on our lips all afternoon, we were told we could come back.
With that hurdle conquered, I vowed to make sure nothing else went wrong. It did.
On opening night I was told that I had to play the role of Nana, the dog. I was mortified. This went on for three days and I had to do every show with a smile. Thankfully for my sanity, I got to be a pirate again.
My performance history continued relatively unscathed until Grade 9.
I had entered the big leagues and was playing the lead role in our production of The Bad Seed. Still, it was peppered with mild to highly cringeworthy moments.
To the unknowing audience, my character would appear gracefully to play at the piano.
In reality, I had to crawl through the window next to the piano in a dress and hide behind a painting, then appear suddenly from the shadows.
This was not exactly conducive to characterisation or my dignity. I loved being in that show but I was not left without a moment of utter embarrassment.
This happened right in the middle of the run and it featured me, running up the stairs in tap shoes and slipping so obviously I thought of just walking off.
But, after almost falling on my face, I had to gather myself and pretend it was part of the scene. I was teeming with embarrassment, but alive.
Ultimately, I wouldn’t give drama up for anything, even if it means having moments like these.
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