Acting

It's usually hard to watch Tim act. It's always him up there, putting on a different accent, holding his body differently; he's always mine, the one I know better than anyone else in the world. I always get a bit squirmy, because I know I'll be grilled afterwards, about what nuances worked, what didn't, if the character was believable, if he delivered a line in an appealing way, and so on (and on and on). I stress out so much, because I just don't know. I'm not that smart about theatre and acting anyway, and I don't always catch the nuances. I'm learning, because of him, but it's taking time.

Then this weekend, I watched a reading at a new play festival/workshop. He played the young romantic lead, set up on a blind date with a psychic girl, who freaked out upon meeting him, then the entire play was about why she couldn't date him. The play was actually better than it sounds. Many flaws, that even I could see, but all in all, a well-written, interesting, funny, poignant play. The crux of the story was that anyone of his blood was unable to have children with anyone of her blood, and so as fate would have it (of course) they fall in love. By the near end, they admitted their feelings and said they loved each other. Unexpectedly, my tears welled up, and embarrassingly, overflowed. I knew they couldn't be together, that the whole play was leading up to that, yet I couldn't hold back the tears.

Later in the evening, when I was telling Tim about this, just describing the scene and my reaction made me start crying again.

"But I just *sniffle sniffle sniffle* wanted you to beeeeee together!"

At the very least, I wanted them to get to actually share a kiss, instead of hearing the stage directions from the narrator: "And then they kissed."

And I looked at Tim, and he was beaming. I realized that for the first time ever, I had actually forgotten it was him on stage. He was Len Fragmire, from Lousiana, in love with girl he couldn't have. He was so good.