If laughter is the best medicine...

...Then there are a whole lot of healthy people around after this weekend. After 2 months of weekly rehearsals where we delivered our lines and then scratched our heads wondering if anyone would actually be laughing, we finally had an audience. And we had them in stitches.

The evening consisted of four one act plays, three of which are locally written the other is "Dinner for One". Although they were supposed to be short plays two of them run for nearly 40 minutes, so being last we worried that everyone would be bored by the time they got to ours.

But no. After an hour and a half of humour, the audience particularly on Saturday night was well lubricated for our play. They didn't stop laughing almost the whole way through our play which made it difficult to deliver lines. Then again, can you go wrong with a play where the two male actors dress up as women mid way through?!

Friday with all it's wonderful opening night nerves was flawless. Seriously. Oh except when a cast member forget his line, but that was okay because he just started taking out his 'fake' breasts - socks - to buy some time. Ah yes, he was wearing a dress and my super high heels at the time!

I loved the experience so much that the only bad part of the performance was that it went so quickly. I was on such a high afterwards that I ate a huge piece of chocolate cake at the after cast party!

Saturday night was not so great. I spent all day so hyperactive in anticipation of being on stage again that by the evening I was totally worn out and all I wanted to do was snuggle up and watch a movie at home. Apparently I wasn't the only one, because it just wasn't a great night. Sure we got heaps of laughs, more than on Friday and I allegedly (because I didn't hear anything) got 'wohoo's' from the blokes when I appeared in my knee high boots, fishnets, leather jacket, mask, whip and itsy bitsy skirt (yeah, given the outfit that was really hard!) but the energy just wasn't the same as the previous evening.

Apparently more seasoned actors say this is normal and things will improve each night from now on. Sadly, that is only another two performances this coming weekend. It would seem that this is a week of endings, because it is the last days of the Couch to 5K programme also. Then what comes next? All I can say is that I hate endings.

It's show time

Tonight is opening night of the play. Yesterday I was bouncing off the walls, I couldn't keep still I was so excited. Today, not so much. The butterflies have arrived and the idea of an audience is making them flutter around in my belly. Ok, so what's the worst that could happen anyway? I could forget my lines or my entrance cue, but hey 'making stuff up as you go along' is a skill in itself right? I could accidentally hit one of the audience members with the tip of my whip when I crack it, but that's cool too because it would just make it more interactive for the audience which is fun. I doubt I will fall off stage - I worried about that before my uni graduation and that went by pretty uneventfully.

At least I won't be wearing my costume upside down tonight. After the dress rehearsal two nights ago the director approached me and in a whisper told me that I was wearing my corset the wrong way around. And all that time I couldn't work out why there were these pouch bits on my belly. Ahh, Le Booby holders! Oops.

The one thing I can't believe is that I haven't joined a theatre earlier. Even on the cold evenings we've been having lately, when all I wanted to do was stay home and snuggle up under the doona I've been coming home from rehearsals beaming from ear to ear, unable to fall asleep from excitement. Me thinks I love acting! Seems so silly now to have waited so long. But no regrets - the show must go on!