One in a million

Frankly, I had much of so-called stage experience as I have been performing since the early childhood. There were a great number of awkward or exhilarating moments. Some of them are not pleasant to recall, the rest would not accommodate in one paragraph. Once I was saved by one boy a second before a humongous peace of the parget fell on my head right on the stage, the other day the music was off while singing at the concert. I’d rather tell you one memorable episode which for me was both thrilling and relatively formidable. Since our topic is theater, it is about my debut as an actress. One day our teacher suggested our acting out an episode from the comedy “The Government Inspector” by N. Gogol at the festival of Russian literature. I was given a role of Marya Antonovna who had some love affairs with Khlestakov. It’s worth saying, the costumes were elaborate and luxurious, and the sets and props were lavish though it was a simple ten-minute episode. The thing I hated that day was a dress with a tight corset which didn’t let me breathe properly. On top of that, it was stifling in the auditorium but I looked imperturbable as though I wore the most comfortable clothes in the world. According to the plot, we had to play a moment when Khlestakov came to Marya to let everything off his chest and tell her he loved her. My character supposed to be inaccessible and shy. At first the feeling that everybody is watching you closely made me shake in my boots but when we plunged into our roles, I didn’t see neither faces of the audience nor felt any fear. We acted as if we were alone in whole world. Finally, the hands were clapping ecstatically, and at last I was back on earth. The applause seemed so thunderous that I felt anxiety first but then happiness. We bowed, and when I got back to the dressing room, I could eventually breathe again! Although it was a bit miserable, the performance was splendid, and we won one of the awards. That day I will remember for my entire life because of the incredible mixture of emotions that made me felt as if I were born again!