The Roles We Play

December 3, 2009

To paraphrase Shakespeare “Work is but a stage and we are merely players.”

In my case this is not just a metaphor. I am in the theatre business so this story
involves an actress called Elizabeth Ashby.  Many years ago she won the lead role in the Broadway play, Tennessee Williams, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof. She played the love-starved Maggie who moved through life like a hungry cat. To prepare herself for the role Ashby went to the streets of New York City to study alley cats behaviours. She imitated the way they moved; they way they pounced when confronted and her belief in this won her a coveted Tony award.

During one of the matinee performances she was in top feline form when she heard a whining sound coming the audience. It sounded like someone crying and try as she might to ignore it, she had to stop her performance, walk to the edge of the stage and ask the perpetrator to be quiet.

At that point a blind man stood up with his Seeing Eye dog and slowly walked down the aisle to the Exit sign. She was mortified. The audience booed her and for the next hour she tried to solider on through the rest of her performance.

When people boo you on stage, now that’s a hard day at the office.

The story would have ended as one of her worse workdays ever, but when she got backstage the man and the dog were waiting for her… He was profusely apologetic saying he had taken the dog to umpteen performances and the animal had never ever made a sound. The only time he whimpered like that was when he saw… a cat.

Ashby practiced acting like a cat and even though she wasn’t, the dog didn’t see the difference.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re not an actress. You don’t go around acting like a cat? Or do you?

We start to play roles early on in our work-life and then get stuck in them for years.
Think about what role you play over and over again at work.  Are you the one who believes you are hard done by? Are you the one who rises above? Or are you whimpering like the dog whenever a person posing as a cat walks by?

You may say, ” But everybody makes me act like this” however a good way to gauge things is look over your history and see what role you’ve chosen to play each time you are in a new situation. Then the question becomes do you like the role you’ve been cast in? Are you choosing this role?

Changing the stories we tell ourselves is challenging.  Rehearsal is needed. Most theatre productions practice every day for six weeks. So it is with changing the way you you do your role. It takes practice.

As for Ashby when that role ended she went on to star in many other roles. As for the dog he didn’t stop whimpering. He was taken to many other Broadway shows except for the musical, Cats.

If you want to see my funny new character: The Challenges of Dating with Maeve Cavan?

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MY Good News from 2009:

• Talking To Sick People put on Queen U. Interdisciplary Web Page.
• Novel  Almost True finished and sent to publisher.

Please, share with me YOUR good news from this year  by leaving a comment.

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Categories: News..., You're Entitled to My Opinion |

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2 Responses to “The Roles We Play”

1. Marcia Barhydt says:

   December 3, 2009 at 1:20 pm

   Deborah, you write beautifully even when you’re not being funny! This piece gave me goose bumps and made me stop and think.

   Thanks.

   Marcia
2. nancy schreiner says:

   December 3, 2009 at 2:19 pm

   Met you at Company of Women event.
   Thanks for sending this clip- you are very funny Deborah! I enjoyed the story too.