Rejuvenation

It’s been a long time since I’ve pumped out one of these.  But the pandemic ground my auditioning to a standstill so I haven’t had material with which to work.  But I did have one doozy of a tale at the height of the pandemic.  A story of rejuvenation.

This year marks an anniversary for me.  Mid-July will mark the twentieth anniversary of my audition for The Elephant Man.  For those of you unfamiliar with that saga, click here.

At the end of that tale, I had mentioned my belief that God used the play to pull me out of the depression from which I’d been suffering.  Little did I know He’d use it again to galvanize me.

One of the last theatre tales I wrote was to address the question of when would I be on stage again.  I answered honestly, but I had real time to further analyze that question during the pandemic with the sudden plethora of time I had on my hands.

When I did Leaving Iowa, I finally believed fully in my acting prowess.  Even better, I was now able to audition with a greater sense of freedom since I could enjoy being in the moment instead of worrying about whether or not I’d get cast.

Though I was now enjoying the freedom of the audition, the reality was that my fortunes didn’t change all that much.  Granted, I was auditioning much less, but I was back to giving great auditions, but unable to land parts.  In fact, I’ve only performed twice in the last 9 years and the gap separating those two performances was 5 ½ years. 

I no longer doubted my ability to act, but I did start to doubt my ability to get cast.  An x factor over which no performer has control.

I was starting to wonder, in my heart of hearts, whether or not my storytelling days were done and if my future involvement would solely be dedicated to writing.  I didn’t have any sadness as I could look back on my body of work with a sense of satisfaction, but I did have a sense of melancholy as I felt I had sped through the five stages of acting.

1.  Who’s Chris Elston?
2.  Get me Chris Elston.
3.  Get me a young Chris Elston.
4.  Get me a Chris Elston type.
5.  Who’s Chris Elston?

In my case, I felt I had skipped steps two and three.  And, yet, I also couldn’t say people were asking “Who’s Chris Elston?”  The Corner made me an ever present name in theatre.  It’s just that I was now far better known for my writing than I ever was for my acting.

But in recent times I began to hear that question more and more.  “When are we going to see you on stage again?”

One night I was pondering that question when I was suddenly struck by a powerful desire to break out my copy of The Elephant Man which I hadn’t looked at since the night of the audition back in 2002.

I scooted my coffee table out of the way.  Then, purely for my own enjoyment, I began acting out scenes from the play.  When I finished, I sank into my couch with a deep sense of satisfaction.

My time as a storyteller was not quite finished yet.  Maybe it was just getting started or restarted as the case may be.

This feeling has only continued to grow as theatre has begun to regain some sense of normalcy.  I can feel my creativity surging through my veins again.  I genuinely want to be back on stage again.

So I don’t know when I’m going to be back on stage again, but I firmly believe it will be soon because I know this much.

I am ready.