The power of saying yes!

The power in saying yes
Years ago when I was not even an aspiring actress yet, barely an aspiring acting student, I learned an exercise where you must say yes to everything your partner offer within a scene, you can't refuse of reject their idea, but must simply “say Yes” and go with it. Of course there was a lot of hilarity involved with these practice scenes, but I think that there is definitely some power in saying yes to the things that pop up in your life.

Not much later, when I was a mere Sophomore and still not accepted on the acting track at BYU, I auditioned for a Chekov play called “the Three Sisters.” As I recall, I made it through initial auditions and one round of call-backs before being cut, and while I was disappointed I was also a realist and knew it would have been somewhat early for me to be cast in starring roles, I was after all, only a sophomore.
Then the cast list went up, and there were 3 girls my age cast in lead roles, and to make things worse, the non-speaking maid role had gone to a Russian girl who fittingly spoke little English.

I was very disheartened but I was already moving on to the next show to audition for. I heard from the girls who had been cast what an amazing experience they were having, the rehearsals working with a lot of more experienced actors and the incredible director Barta Heiner. I was very envious and only a little bitter at not being a part of it all.

Three weeks before the show was to open, the aforementioned incredible director approached me outside of the theatre lobby, just next to the SLAB (a large flat “bench “ on the ground floor of the Harris Fine Arts Center)

She explained that the maid role had come open (perhaps due to lack of communication?) and offered it to me. I knew it wouldn’t be glamorous but I thought that maybe I could learn something just being in the room with all that talent and so I said yes!

I was right, it was not glamorous, but it was amazing, I walked into a basically crafted show, and had to figure out how to be where the maid was supposed to be, I had to follow people around carrying a large silver tray and sometimes a heavy silver tea service, I had to sit in the wings for hours at a time waiting for my 2 seconds on stage. I learned that sometimes the actors aren’t the only ones you have to say yes to, during a preview performance a door on stage got stuck and while others chose to leave off the side of the stage, I knew the silver tea service wouldn’t fit so I had to kick the door open, graceful? NO, but it was pretty funny.
And yes, I did learn a lot just being in the room with all of that talent. My example probably could end there, I count among those I got to know during that show some of my closest friends, and I learned a work ethic that served me well in all my shows since, but the story goes better than this.

You see, the show had started and was going well, and there was some question about the date of an upcoming matinee showing, we had understood that the theatre would be closed on a certain day and many of the cast had made plans, then we learned that tickets had already been sold and that the show would have to go on. My friend Mireille was playing the sister-in-law Natasha, and had made plans to be in LA, I believe for a professional audition, and was unable to reschedule.

I was asked if I would take her role for that performance. I would like to think it was because I had shown some ability, but in fact it may have been that we were the same size and I fit the costume. In any case, I accepted and began three days of intense cramming. The rest of the cast rallied around me and held emergency rehearsals of all my scenes, the backstage crew made sure I was where I was supposed to be and helped me tape copies of my scenes to the walls backstage, the leading man kindly lied to me and told me the terror in my eyes during the first few seconds of my first entrance gave him “something interesting to play off of”, in short, it was an incredible experience that I will never forget, and it taught me that no matter what comes up during a run of a show, I can deal with it.
I think about that amazing time and all that I would have missed if I had said “no” and today, I am going to try to say yes to more things. For example, my little bosses just came in and asked if I wanted to watch Saturday Morning Cartoons and snuggle with them, I think I’ll say “Yes”