Seven Characters, One Very Tired Actor (or am I an Actress?)

Posted May 5 in News, Performances, Comments 0

By Carla Stillwell

So here I am once again on stage with MPAACT. And as usual I’m in a show, Radical Hearsay, that is not traditional. What does she mean by that you ask? MPAACT very rarely if ever produces a nice safe work where an actor can play one roll. Create one character. A sweet little show where the characters have a simple storyline and their last line in the show is something like, “Things always work out for the best.” or “Thank God for you Mama”. 

 No, no, no, not MPAACT…this little theatre company has to test an actor. Now 13 years ago when I first came to MPAACT these shows were an actors (or am I an actress?) paradise for me. I could jump around and have bodies fall on me and run up and down stairs and play characters that talked about emotionally draining subjects and feel great about the $40,000 I spent on my college theatre education. I was using every actor and actual muscle I had in every show and was loving it.

 So here I am, 13 years later playing 7 different characters. And although I still enjoy using my actor muscles, my actual muscles are really not happy with me. Radical Hearsay is a radical departure from what my knees and back want from me. My knees want me to find a nice role where I play one nice fat mama and spend a large portion of the show sitting on some comfortable furniture. My knees are not happy with MPAACT. So, if you come out and you enjoy the show and you love what the theatre company does, that’s great. But just know this…Carla’s knees are not feeling it and if you can’t see the pain on her face then that is truly a testament to her $40,000 theatre education.