The Cur tain Goes Up
One student's experiences
on the live stage
By Emily S.
AOA student, Emily S., tells of her
experiences in an international theatre
troupe.
"Theater doesn?t last, except in
people?s memories and in their hearts. That?s
the beauty and sadness of it. But that?s life:
beauty and sadness. And that?s why theater
is life." - Sherie Rene Scott
Since February of 2019, I have been
working with my theatre troupe on a Turkish
play. We worked on Saturdays and Sundays,
twelve hours a week, every week from
February to January. We spent over 500
hours in close quarters, running dance
numbers, singing, acting, sleeping, fixing
costumes, and becoming a family.
Our play opened on January 6, 2020.
We were going to be performing in a big
theater in Izmir, the largest city in our
province. We got to our rehearsal theatre
way before the bus was scheduled to leave,
and all stood in a big circle, buzzing about
who was coming to the show and what our
day would be like.
The bus pulled out of our town, a
cheer went up, and then everyone promptly
fell asleep. We had been up late the night
before rehearsing, and so we were rightfully
exhausted. However, when we pulled into
Izmir, the excitement level bounced back up.
Girls tossed tubes of lipstick at each other,
guys teased all the girls, older women fixed
their hair, and older men just shrugged and
let the chaos happen.
We watched another city?s show
before we were allowed to move in
backstage and get our set made. The girls
left the guys to the lifting and moving and
organizing, so that we could put on our
dresses, do our hair and makeup, and, of