sway it was my freshman year of high school, and i decided to try my hand at acting. my impression of acting was the ability to memorize and portray a character from a script. it seemed like it would be fun, so i decided to try out for the school play. the criteria for the tryout was to read or memorize a poem or short story. i had settled on poes annabelle lee. the day of my tryout, i walked onto the stage and noticed a tall ladder. i stood next to it and introduced myself to the drama teacher. what are you going to read? she asked without emotion. um...i memorized annabelle lee by... i started. good, she interrupted and tossed a loose hand in the air, go ahead. i began, it was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea... stop! she said abruptly, she pointed at the ladder. climb the ladder. i looked at the ladder. it was really tall, maybe 20 ft. and it was on the stage...i imagined climbing the lanky seuss-esque ladder and it sliding off the stage, causing me to fall into the make-out seating in the auditorium. i looked down to the dark third row where she sat in the shadows. maybe i had misunderstood. surely she hadnt just told me to climb the ladder. i pointed at it with huge eyes and a question mark painted on my face, my mouth slightly open as if to ask without asking. climb-the-ladder. she said, addressing the question mark. i walked to the ladder and put my foot on the bottom rung, held a rung, and looked to the top. my heart began heaving seeing all those horizontal lines getting closer and closer until they were overlapping at the top, so far away. i looked back down at her. she was looking at me. her face said stop wasting my time. i started to climb. the ladder felt rickety; it felt as if it were barely defying gravity and i was all it needed to succumb. my heart was vibrating with the exhilaration of terror. i was a third of the way up when i began to consider saving the drama teacher some time and getting back to the stability of the ground. she read my mind. dont be scared, she said, just climb. something clicked in my head. dont be scared. i commenced my trek up the ladder with new vigor. pretend youre not scared, i thought, act like you arent scared. i made it to the top and felt myself swaying over the stage. i was terrified, but i had tricked myself to the top by acting calm. i looked down at the drama teacher with a stone expression. start! she said.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 16:06:13 +0000
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