#theater program

Cover of the program for Better Times at the Hippodrome, 1922-23. Among the huge cast of this three-act "super-musical spectacle" was one Archie Leach, who later became known as Cary Grant. The show was a hit, running 405 performances.

I think our frustrations are often brushed off. “Someone else has it worse!” “You’re doing fine! You have nothing to be frustrated about!” “You’re being too dramatic!” 

I’m someone who tends to get frustrated more than I get angry or sad. This has been the overarching theme of my college career. I’ve spent a lot of time getting frustrated over not feeling good enough, feeling like I wasn’t improving, feeling unseen and lastly: having to spend the last year and half of my schooling online. At this point (almost a year into it!!!) I’m pretty much used to being online and living day to day in our current state of the world. But - I still occasionally get frustrated. Sometimes I think about how my last year and half of school wasn’t *supposed* to be only online. I think about how I’m able to enjoy my classes but then think about how they should have been in person. Yesterday it really hit me while I was singing in a practice room and it impacted my ability to practice. I thought I was being silly. I should be lucky that my family, friends and I for the most part have been able to stay safe and healthy over the last year. I’m still able to get an education and improve - why am I getting so upset now? 

In my lesson today I told my voice teacher about what happened, and she pointed something out to me: You’re allowed to grieve. We’ve been living under these circumstances for almost a year now. There has been so much loss and change in such a short amount of time - not to mention the uncertainty of it all. Don’t feel afraid to grieve what you might have lost. Whether it be your schooling, job opportunities, performance opportunities - it’s okay. This has been a wildly upsetting and frustrating time. We don’t always have to be the perfect student. We don’t have to have perfect practice sessions every time or blow our class out of the water with our monologues. Having one bad day isn’t going to set us up for failure for the rest of our careers. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed: stop. Take time for yourself until you’re calmed down and move on. It’ll be there tomorrow or in two days. Remember that this is a stressful time - sometimes we can’t act like everything is normal. 

Alice in Wonderland 不思議の国のアリス Walt Disney’s movie Theater Program - Japan - 1953