If you're joining us for this instalment of the Three Left Feet blog, then you're probably a theatre fan. All of the Three Left Feet team are fans of theatre life - we've each acted, stage-managed and directed at some point in our theatre careers so far.
We have seen every side of theatre, from the glamour and the applause to the blisters and the tears. And we're not the only ones...
Where do we head to find people with stories like ours to share? Twitter, of course!
So join us as we explore 10 of the most relatable #JustTheatreThings tweets on Twitter at the moment!
Nothing To See Here, Officer...
This is such a mood. I'm pretty sure that I still have spotty scarves and fireman hats that I held onto in case we needed them for a theatre show. If you've ever been in a Shakespeare play, you'll know the fear of being caught with a cardboard knife in your bag at Greggs.
Working 9 Till... Whenever We Finish That Bloody Dance Number
If anyone else took drama at high school, you'd know the pain of those late nights. After doing a full day at school, you'd head to rehearsals and spend another 2-3 hours busting your gut to perfect your monologue or the dreaded group piece. Other teachers never quite understood that you couldn't do homework for them because you left school after they did!
If You Need Me, I'll Be Unconscious
Don't get me wrong, show blues suck. Waking up the day after a closing night can sometimes feel a bit empty. But it also feels REALLY good to just sleep. Yes, you're probably still washing glitter out of your hair, but that satisfying lie in the next day (unless you're on the production team!) is blissful. After a 38 hour show prep weekend where I'd stolen naps under seating banks and in make-up chairs, I remember sleep feeling like a well-earned treat.
Rehearsing All Day? Cool, Cool, Cool, Cool, Cool, Cool
This sounds more like a shift in retail or bar work, to be honest, but I was blessed with the curse of the multirole, so I never had time to realise my feet hurt before they were changing shoes for the 87th time.
Don't Act The Tree, BECOME The Tree
Now I never had a teacher swear at me. Far too British for that. But I did have a modern dance teacher stand over me in very tight trousers and encourage me to roar like a lion. I think that's more traumatising than the odd curse word if I'm honest.
The Ghost Of Theatre Yet To Come
I was always the old lady. One day, I worked with grey/silver/white hair because my blue hair was so thick and bright that I legit had to have my hair painted with white face paint. Eventually, I accepted that for the next three days, I was 82.
Yeah, It's For A Show...
If your mum believes this excuse, then you obviously have impressive acting skills.
Your Casual Tuesday Attire
Swap Walmart for SPAR, and you have my entire university career. I was in a lot of period pieces, playing many dashing gentlemen and well-to-do elderly women, so my costumes were rarely subtle. The sad thing is that the shop workers didn't even seem phased at all.
The Show Must Go On!
As Queen famously said, the show must go on. I was once in an adaptation of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, and one of my fellow actors got a horrific case of food poisoning. He was running off to be sick in between every scene, and he still had the house roaring with laughter on stage! Someone once stabbed me mid-performance with a butter knife. It drew blood and everything. But theatre is life, so we carry on.
Alright, Who's Nabbed My Corset?
Finally, we wouldn't be honouring the beauty of theatre life if we didn't give an honourable mention to the instant lowering of boundaries within the changing rooms. When you have 16 seconds to get on stage, you don't care who does it; you just need that mic-pack down your underwear as fast as possible. It's how all the best friendships are made.