Eight shows a week is daunting, and it can be terrifying. But it just instills such a sense of confidence and growth.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Eight shows in six days can become very tiring - actually, a grind. It's not that I ever dreaded going to work because I always maintained a level of gratitude.
To do eight shows a week saying exactly the same lines, you have to be obsessively perfecting it or utterly mindless.
The longest show I've ever done was four and a half years, so I can only imagine what ending an eight year show is like.
It might be odd for people to hear this, but honestly, you know, when you're on stage, I don't think people realize how grueling eight shows a week is. And as far as jobs go, being a Broadway actor, it's hard. It's fun, but it's hard.
Well, there's much more time to do a weekly show, and much more coverage - as it turns out, it was all preparation for the stuff I'm doing now - but it was interesting to see how much time was spent on how little airtime, compared to knocking out a show a day on the soaps.
I was on a series for a number of years, and I got very used to only doing a mini-play per week. When I first came back to the theater, and I was suddenly doing eight shows a week again for three or four months, I had to find a new reason to do it.
I think it's a very ephemeral thing, what makes a show a success.
Combine that with the fact that we only had one week to get everything taken care of and to get to know one another, whereas most shows get two weeks. It looked like we would never have a chance.
It's a lot of a workload doing an hour dramatic show. It's just incredible what little time off you get.
I really prefer the actual experience of being onstage and living the character from beginning to end with the energy of the audience. There's nothing that beats that feeling, and yet I really have trouble with the eight shows a week.