Michael Venske

If you’re looking for the Complaint Department…

Currently I’m at the theatre in my dressing room. Today marks the beginning of tech-week and already I’m looking forward to the close of the show. Not a good sign…

If life is about learning, consider this show a lesson learned. While I’m pleased to include this show on my resume and learn from professionals in the field, the fact of the matter is that choosing to do the show has forced me to pass on other auditions and opportunities I would have otherwise been perfect for…

That’s the thing about this type of work, right?

Further, I’m finding that as an actor, my heart isn’t in “the classics.” I prefer realism, expressionism, postmodernism, and absurdism again and again…

Today I’ve been at the theater going on 9.5 hours. When we’re cut for the day, it will be after midnight and I will have put in my 12 hour day… Which is fabulous, except I’m not doing anything.

In my new role as “essential” (i.e., the term given to an actor at the Guthrie with no lines, commonly referred to as an “extra,” yet important enough to be considered essential to the production) I’m going stir-crazy. I haven’t felt this useless and uncomfortable since “The Thorn.” Which is because I know my place: do as you’re told, don’t ask questions, don’t cause problems…

Rehearsals frustrate me. It took over 3 hours to work through scene one… And it’s not a long scene!

When I was at the BNW, we’d set cues, do a cue-to-cue, and run the show in four hours. Sketch comedy suits me. It allows me to make a point, in plain language, and quickly. People laugh and BOOM we move to the next thing. Plus it’s more fun to perform…

Sigh.

Dear reader, do you ever wonder what you’ll do when all you’ve ever wanted isn’t enough?

walkonred