Well the first thing accomplished in rehearsals is the read-throughs, then the blocking- which we have already covered. Then of course we began working on each scene. I was having a perfectly splendid time too. It was pretty easy to memorize my lines - even though the director expected us to be off book in a week and a half! Maybe that is how it generally goes... Anyway it was easy because the script is written so well that each line cues the others off.

The experience was as great as i had imagined it would be until october 27. I had the date circled on my calendar because i knew that it would be the first time we would run through Act 2 Scene 13- not only a scene where i have to comedically and yet very tragically burst onto the stage weeping and wailing, but also the scene of the infamous stage kiss... gasp... yep october 27 had already come. So after gathering the amazing advice brought to me by blog readers like yourself from this great online musical theater community, and freaking out multiple times internally about all the different ways this could go down, I was ready : ) or not.

The scene started out, well pretty terribly. I had made my attempt at a emotional entrance, actually three times, with the director doing his job and telling me how awful it was... before he let the scene progress and he even let us elude the actual kiss the first time around. I wasn't going to tell him that he had missed it. Then he had us, of course, go through it again- obviously it was because i needed all the work i could get mustering up enough courage and strong emotion to perform the scene the way he had invisioned. But this time he did not let the kiss pass by unacted.

I had read online- here at the mta forum- that stage kisses are always awkward, but that there are some actors - actually 5 different kinds- who make them worse, and painful for the other people in the room.Most people are praying that they do not get stuck with one of them. BUT what if you are one of them yourself! What then!! I knew going into practice that i was the one who was going to make this weird- even though the actor that i was kissing was younger than me, and a little nerdy- actually he was cast because of his nerdiness- but even though all that was true, i knew it would be me and not him who was going to make this worse for everyone in the room. Did i mention that the whole cast was there...? Yeah.

So how did it go? i bet you are wondering- well i managed to blush a deep shade of burgandy, and give about a half a second long peck, before i started giggling... YEP! Then of course everyone was laughing, except me- who for the first time in the evening felt like i could have given a convincing scene of tears and sorrow. The director obviously was not satisfied and so began round two. Did i giggle again? Yes, you know i did. And the whole time i couldn't help but feel really bad for the guy playing opposite me- it wasn't his fault he got stuck with me! But soooo very thankfully the director made a joke that drew the attention away from my awkwardness- Thank you Paul!! But then he made us try it again- thanks a lot Paul!! The third time around i managed to get through it, but once agian ended too soon, then Paul explained that our kiss had to last through the next actor's line- which just happened to be nice and long. So we tried agian and the actor forgot what his line was!! So he had to find it in his script... yep. SO we tried again and there was no giggling and the other actor got through his line, and THEN i realized that i had the next line- do you think that i remembered it.... No i did not, but i did start laughing and eventually got half of the words out. Paul let us quit after that. Not before he mentioned to everyone how much work Act 2 Scene 13 needed.

So i feel like it could have gone worse, but not a whole lot worse. The next night of rehearsal the director scheduled in extra practice for that scene. I had mentally prepared myself for it though and it was funny because we got through it fine and not only the director but the whole cast gave a sigh of relief, we didn't even finish the scene- it was like a special practice just to see if i could get though it. Nice, right! I had resigned myself to the fact that i would just have to get used to kissing matt onstage because i read in the script that in another scene we are supposed to be making out in the background. Which i have a feeling, he is actually enjoying... so there you go. What do you think of it all?? How would you feel?? Are there any other awkward stage kissers out there??