Sing With Your Lips

Professor Sham's favorite thing to say about theatre is that you need to be the character. He tells us that we are not supposed to act because that is being a horrible, even wretched, actor. Anyone, he says, can get up on a stage and force what they would do on a character. Real theatre happens when you toss aside who you are, who you have been, and who you will be and simply exist in the moment.

I suppose that's how I ended up on a stage in front of my class lip syncing to "The Winner Takes It All" from Mama Mia.

About a week ago he went off on one of his "acting versus being" tangents, and then gave us all a wicked grin. "In a week, class, you are going to be a lip sync. You will stand in front of the class and convince us that that, up on the stage, is a real person and that the voice is coming from you."

I was horrified. How was I supposed to do that? Oh, sure, I understand the entire thing about being; I've had to let go of who I was many times in the past. But to make it seem like, down to the very breath, I was someone else? That was going to be tricky.

Most of the next week was spent searching for a song, my worry growing with each day as I failed to come up with an idea. And then the coughing started. Beth, one of my housemates, had brought home a cold from the hospital. "Well," I thought to myself when I lost my voice, "at least I would be able to sing along and not be heard."

I stood in front of the class, the first few strains of the music cutting through the air as I tried not to look too nervous. But I couldn't seem to focus. And then the words started. Seconds passed as I mouthed along, throwing my body into the act as well as I could (considering how angry my kidneys are being). I made sure to breathe and do my best with being in line with the words. And then it was over. Just like that. There was a pause as the class considered me, and then came the murmured, "She was out." Out of character.

Or rather, that's how it would have been if I had gotten the chance to perform today.