Second Night

At sixteen I was Private Smith in a school production of The Long and the Short and the Tall, a laconic Northern Englishman in the jungles of Malaysia surrounding by the advancing Japanese army. I stood on stage, gormless, reciting my lines with the enthusiasm of a metronome. I didn't need anyone to tell me that my acting was awful and I resolved never to tread the boards again.

Memory tells me that was a one-night production. Skip forward 40+ years. Last night, I appeared on stage in public for the second time, in two short roles topping and tailing As You Like It - as Charles the middle-aged Scots wrestler and Jacques de Boys the young (!) son of old Sir Rowland. In the first I got laughs - unexpected but not unwelcome; in the second, I held their attention. In short, I acquitted myself well.

In my downtime - almost 2 hours, I sat in the dressing-room reading the paper and doing Sudoku, watching and chatting with fellow thespians as they exited and entered. Laughter and applause drifted through the blackout curtain from an overflowing auditorium. At the end of the show, we trooped off after the curtain call, to be hauled back in again by ongoing applause. In short, it was a very well received production.

I was tense but not nervous, a little bored during the long wait off stage. I don't do happy - at least not in real life - but I was content and pleased that I had taken this step to explore acting at this late stage in my life. As I add another credit to my short CV, the next step is to take the phrase "would-be" off the heading of this blog. Now I know I can call myself an actor.