My first time on stage

As long as I can go in the past, I wouldn't have dreamed about a me who would have been an "actor". I grew up dreaming of becoming a doctor and I end up happily studying to be a computer science engineer. During my second year, I discover the theater club of my college. Little did I knew back then, that this club would be the place of so much joy and growth for me during the years to come.

Four years back, I randomly bumped on a post on Facebook about the readings of the summer project of the theater club. I am a big reader and I've always had a love for theater so I thought it would be interesting to go and see what it was. Moreover, I was in Montreal for a year now, I had made few connections with some persons of my cohorte and was in search of others since I'm not that much of a party soul. I went then and discover an interesting group of people. Ten minutes after my arrival, I was reading a role in one of the play considered to be presented. I let my name down for a small role in the idea of a challenge to myself. The meeting went well and despite my big shyness, I was contacted one week later to play Dr Faustin in Sale Attente.

Dr Faustin, is one of the male lead role of the play. He is a dental surgeon, is handsome, young, married, rich, a player almost a womenizer. He is a jokester and own his own clinic where our play was being held. In some way, he is all my opposite. I'm not that much of a jokester, usually people laugh at my behalf because of my lack of second degree. I'm far from being a player, I even find myself ridiculous when I speak with someone I have an interest on. So the big question I had to myself and for the director was " how will we succeed to create a character convincing enough to convene the corkiness of Dr Faustin ? ".

I had a lot of apprehension when I accepted the role. Like I introduce ealier, I had no real ressemblance with my character. That made it more of a challenge. The whole play was a comedy and not to enter in specific I had to find a way to lend the jokes and keep the rythm. The scarrier things is in theater everything is live. There is no place to hide. You are in front of the public. When the play is going strong and the rythm is good you can feel it because the public give you back the energy. I was affraid of not getting the rythm, forgetting the lines because as a lead I had a lot of text to learn.

What I didn't know at the beginning and I discovered during the process, is how intense the preparation in the making of a play can be. I enter in an adventure of six months of an intense preparation. Learning text, trying the character, rehearsing acts, participating in workshops. Navigating between my day job in the summer break, my courses in autumn and my schedule for the rehearsel was chalenging and tiring. I had to work hard to keep the pace and I never knew how enduring my body was till that moment.

Here's what Dr Faustin thaught me about myself. I never knew I could be charming, because I never really put myself in situation where I had to be. For example, I made a workshop where I had to seduce all the women of the club. It was an impro and I had to imagine myself in a bar "flirting" with girls that was seating beside me. Interesting exercice for somoene who is not use to this kind of setting. At first I was so shy, I couldn't say a word. However, in the repetition of the exercice and the great encouragement of my co-actors, I started to relax and even enjoy the moment.

He thaught me something about self confidence. Learning his walk, his expression that I somehow created made me improve my posture. He made me see things with a bit of a funny side. He never takes himself seriously and jokes about everything. He learned me to find a lighter me, more open, less serious. It's a weird feeling, because he is a fictionnal character that I interpreted based on my sensibility.

Playing on stage was an unexpected experience, not because it was less than I was envisionning but the total opposite. Things go so fast, from the greetings of the director to the end of the first act and then the second and the greetings of the team. There is million of things going on: costume's change, decor's change, etc... Everything need to be planned and orchestreted to never have a break in the rythm. I'd never experimented something that meticulous before. It felt good to be a part of something articulated. I was in a team and everybody was lifting each other up and sharing impressions on the last scenes to help improve the show.

I've always thougth, there were something extraordinarily beautiful in theater:

it gives an amazing view point on the life of people we don't know, people we see or not and don't understand.

Acting appeared to me as a good exposure of a me I didn't know I was, a me I didn't know I needed. Playing someone that wasn't me, gave me a moment to take a break and see my life from different angle. It enlarged my perspective on my possibilities.

I will never forget the excitement I felt when I first went up on stage. The feeling was indescriptible. The impression of the limitless possibilities that this little space built on a wood platform under the lights can offer is incredible. I went out of this experience with more than what I enumerated before hand. I went out with memories of a lifetime. Memories of laughters, help, and accomplishment. I also found a group of persons that I call friends today, and had the luck to reiterate in other positions the experience as actor and director.

The greatest thing I learnt in the process is:

"Preparation is the key to overcome anything. To learn and grow is a matter of challenging yourself and believe in your strengh or at least give yourself a chance 😜"