Clan of Marked Men

This weekend makes it the last weekend of the year that I will be acting for the 2016-2017 school year. My first show was the Troy High fall play, and my First musical was this one, Guys and Dolls. Walking onto the stage with hat screwed on, make-up fresh, and a jump in my step towards the hawkish spotlights is a displacing experience. The mind is black and offers little escape or comfort if the lines of the script do not flow out of your pretty mouth. It is expected to be mechanistic. It isn't too hard memorizing and acting out the same lines for the same performance eight times. The hard part is when the mind is blank and the lines do not flow. When the whole audience (and cast and stage crew) have their eyes on you, waiting to submerge in your gooey lines. In the next winding of the plot. 

The Clan of Marked Men is a special one. It means that I am in the company of those marked by the spotlight. The light itself is always on. Hours after the rehearsal one can walk about the stage and face the lights in all their glory, but that is when the lights are sleeping. The lights are dormant. The lights are waiting to strike. The Clan of Marked Men are also a support group. They are the ones who bear the heat of the lights and offer guidance when the mind goes black. When the mind goes red. And sometimes, when it goes blue. The Clan of Marked Men know these colors very well.