Memories...

[nockergeek]

Once upon a time, when I was 15 years younger and 15 years more naïve, I thought I had a future in live theatre. I threw myself into the craft in high school, culminating with me directing one of the school plays during the spring of my junior year. It was a short play named Sparks in the Park, originally performed during a young playwright's festival in New York in 1987. I directed and played the lead role (oh, young ego, why don't we ever know better?), and rendertarget was my partner in crime. We'd taken the show to a competition or two and gotten favorable results, so I had a chance to put it on stage for the whole school to see. Like any good show, though, backstage was where the real action happened; there were ups and downs, personal drama, failed attempts at romance, and strains put on friendships that nearly broke them. If you've ever seen the play or movie Noises Off!, you may have an inkling as to what it was like. Somehow, we all survived those several months of early 1994 more or less intact. I'd even picked up a smoking habit, but I was an utter lightweight - I quit before the year's end, having only smoked a cigarette to completion once. Still, after everything, I just knew that theatre was where my heart was, and where my future would be.

Three years layer, I'd lost my love for the stage, dropped my theatre major in college, burned out, and dropped out after blowing two very nice scholarships. (Want to know how to lose a National Merit Scholarship? Ask me how!) Since then, I haven't so much as set my foot on a stage other than to take part in activities at church. My days of performing are far behind me, but it's still nice to recollect every once and again...

(This random memory brought to you by a random note on Facebook from another participant in our little dramatic adventure way back when.)