Nobody Understands

[prettydang]

I love drama...as in plays and musicals. I love being on stage, and singing, and making the audience laugh and the applause...great. Wonderful, even. It's my baby, my favorite hobby.

so I'm always looking forward to the annual school play...I love the director, all my friends get involved, and this is my last year. We're doing my favorite play, The Music Man

So let me condense a long story. I'm not the most attractive bird in the tree, but I am animated, so I usually am given character parts like the comic relief (i.e. Bonnie in Anything Goes, Yente in Fiddler on the Roof) and that's fine. But I've always wanted a lead, you know? Nice not to have to steal a scene, but have it given to you.

And this year looked like my year. All the really attractive people have graduated, so it left my homely but capable self to take the lead, Marion. I mean, three years and five productions of loyally jumping through hoops for my director...I think I was right for believing I deserved it!

Now, I did get the part...but I've got to share it. With a freshman. She goes one night, I the next, she the next...we're only performing for three nights. That's bad. You don't double cast with only three nights.

Now I'm not going to give you the rant I gave my friends, or the people wo read the THINGs on my site, but suffice to say, I feel miffed. This is my very last year going, and the girl I'm splitting the role with could have the lead next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. It's not right to give a freshman the lead, anyway. Know what I got my freshman year? Diddly.

But I digress. Am I right in feeling the way I do? My friends are angry with me for complaining, which means I don't talk about it, which means I brood about it more than I should, which means I want to complain even more, which means I'm even broodier and more silent...which gives my friends something else to complain about.

Am I being a prissy prima donna? Can you understand why this feels like a hollow victory? I work three years to this end, and can't even enjoy it fully?

Nobody understands.

yours.

[DrWolfgangVonBubbles]

Sounds like your "director" needs to have a block of cheeze thrown at him... :p

[Ipsquiggle]

I totally agree with you 100%!!! In our school, and most I think, seniors get priority in the large productions for just that reason: It's their last chance. This is both logical and fair. Maybe she is a good actor and deserves the part. Well, if she's that good, she'll probably get it next year.

Secondly, you say there are only three performances. I was in a play once where we only played one afternoon and one night. Every actor in the play hated it, we all felt like we had worked too hard for it to be over so fast. So to cut back on the lead's performances, and give this other person a single performance, that's just not fair to either of them!

So I say, I understand!!

[geek]

i've been in plays.. but unlike you - I've never been interested in being a lead role. I like going out on stage and being goofy, maybe 40-50 lines.. nothing more. I do understand, though, and I'm sorry to hear that you're being jipped :p

[prettydang]

Thanks, you guys. That really makes me feel better. I hate that I can't talk about this with anyone...complain to my family, they tell me "just quit" which is no solution. I complain to my friends and they get upset. I complain to the directors--they'd just take me out altogether! It's nice to find someone who gets it.

The funny roles are fun, too: more fun, really...this is just the first (and, truthfully, probably the last) time I'll get a serious part.

thanks again for listening...or...reading. whatever.

yours.