The past couple of weeks have been very intense yet interesting for me. I've been working with the amazing team of Sierra Theatre Productions for the play, "Let Me Die Alone: The Life and Times of Madam Yoko," which was performed tonight. I had a blast at the show tonight and I did my best, which the entire cast did as well. I am very grateful for this opportunity to get back into theater acting, because it's been a long time since I did something like this and I had a blast. Preparing for this event was a lot of fun, and getting to work with so many wonderful people from my country, Sierra Leone.
Yes, I am a Sierra Leonean and I do mingle with Sierra Leoneans in several ocassions. However, my interaction is quite limited due to several factors such as my location and interests. I really liked working with the cast because I sometimes felt that I took mini-trips to Sierra Leone and back in their presence. Some of the cast members even told me that I laugh a lot, but what they did not know is that my laughters were sometimes derived from hearing certain krio words or stories which I haven't heard in a long time and they brought great memories.
Indeed rehearsals were intense several times, but the environment and mood of the cast and crew made it a pleasurable experience for me. Everyone was very respectful, sweet, caring, fun, and overall we were like a family. It made me fall in love more with my country, my culture, and my Sierra Leonean people. Being part of this play tonight also brought back wonderful memories of when I used to do theater performances in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, and my passions for theater arts.
Although I write poetry and monologues, it was quite a challenge for me to memorize lines in the script. Honestly, the last time I did live theater was in 2007, when I wrote a play for my High School African Club, and it was not very intimidating to do that because I was the writer, so I already had ideas and sequences in my head from memory of what my scenes were. What was a bit nervewracking with this play today was that this performance was no longer a solo performance as I have doing over the past couple of years, but my scenes were dependent on other cast members that I interact with, so there was definitely no room for mess-ups. In addition, I needed to be on my best behavior because this play was one of the events that commemorated Sierra Leone's 50th Independence celebrations, and Mammy Yoko is one of Sierra Leone's greatest women!
Like I always say, I had BLASTY BLAST and by the grace of God I hope to work more with Sierra Theatre Productions and many more theater performances.
P.S.: Acting was my first love, but I am and will remain passionate about dance as well, so don't think I'll slow down on that. Now all I need to do is create paths for myself whereby I can incorporate theater, dance, and writing into my performances, and then I'll be golden!
Here's a picture I took backstage before tonight's event.
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