The iron tongue of
It's funny how the people we spend time with can become more like family than those of our own blood. The Montford Park Players are more of a family unit than any other theatre group I've ever encountered. This is a good and a bad thing. We love and laugh and play like family, we share one another's joys and woes, but as with any other family, there are times when siblings fly at each other's throats. But I'm not speaking about any particular instance, and everyone always seems to kiss and make up, so all and all, I'm of the opinion that the familial feeling we have is a wonderful and rare thing.
It gets me to thinking about how, more often than not, thespians are such a loving breed of creature. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but I've found that although the stereotype of the catty, shallow actor does exist (and is at least a tiny bit present in all of us), that isn't all there is to it. Everyone can have those unstable moments that actors seem to be famous for, but what people tend to forget is that these are people who bare pieces of soul on a regular basis. It's only natural that they have wild emotional ranges as a result. I'm not trying to say that all actors are bipolar, far from it - most of them are much more levelheaded than they get credit for.
What I AM trying to say is that actors can have such a large capacity for love. Think about it - every couple of months, if we're lucky, we get cast in a new show. That show may or may not be comprised of actors that we have worked with before, and there's almost always at least SOMEONE new, so we readhese old bonds and form new ones. We spend insane amounts of time with other cast members, we set aside all inhibitions in order to be as free as possible onstage, and then all of a sudden, the show is over and we move on to reform a new family unit with a new cast. Sometimes, we might not ever see members of our old family again...but I don't think it's because we don't love each other. I suppose I can't speak for every other actor out there, but I know that I grow to love my cast mates. And I don't stop loving any of them just because I may not see them again.
I guess what really got me to thinking about all this is the fact that I ran into two old high school friends in the same day last Friday, two people that I always loved even though we might never have been best friends. We didn't pretend that we were going to keep in better touch, didn't exchange numbers and make those well-meant promises to go have lunch that people never intend to keep. We just hugged and caught up and laughed and said goodbye, and it was good.
Society seems to perpetuate this idea that in order to really love people, you have to keep in touch with them forever and call them every week, and that those are your best friends. I don't think I quite agree. I think there are people I could easily list among my "best friends" that I only talk to once every few months or less, and there are just as many people I would only call acquaintances that I see every day. There are people I loved dearly in high school that I no longer see because we've all scattered, but I still love them and think of them fondly, and not seeing them for six years hasn't changed that affection. And, in what seems to me to be the saddest situation, there are people I still love who I know no longer hold me in any kind regard. There are a select few who have spurned me, and all but one of that handful went so far as to say they "didn't need me anymore". Those four words hurt more than any other part of those friendships ending, because every time, those words brought the painful realization that a friendship I had believed to be healthy was really one-sided and based only on the other person's need.
But, I digress. The point I'm trying to make is that I still love even those people, and I wonder if this sort of capacity for love is what makes actors able to form and reform such strong family bonds over and over again. Then again, maybe I'm just imagining this trait in all actors. Maybe the best in this kind really are but shadows.
One last note - I've realized that my writing and my inner monologue during the summer tend to take on tones of Shakespearean text. I don't mean the lines I quote deliberately - I mean I catch myself thinking in thees, thous, shalts, wonts, etcetera etcetera. It's vaguely interesting. And now, to bed. Give me your hands if we be friends.
