Blue Umbrella Official Feb 2020 issue | Page 16

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