Author's notes: This was originally supposed to be another 'CATS and Me' fic, but as I began to write, it became more of what CATS really means to me. Everything in this story is true.
"I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed in all my life!" I moaned. "I thought I was getting something out of that workshop, I guess I was wrong!"
I had just come out of a workshop at my Dance School. It was a jazz workshop, and I had been taking jazz for half a year and felt pretty confident about my skills. But little did I know that the workshop was to be filled with advanced students who had been dancing for most of their lives!
"Don't worry about it dear!" Mom says to me from the front seat of the car. "I'm sure you did great!"
I sighed. "Not really. I mean, the warm-ups hurt, and while others could do them easily without wincing at the pain of the stretch, I had to control myself from not making a face. When we did a combination I kept getting off balance and my arms were always going the opposite way as everyone else. When they went 'this' way, I went 'that' way."
"Oh stop..."
"AND there was this girl, who was like, five years younger than me, she did everything perfectly! I on the other hand..."
"You're just being too hard on yourself! You're a great dancer!"
Yeah right, here I am, almost seventeen years old, who can't even do a patavoure without tripping over myself! I swear I'll never learn!
My dream is to be in CATS before it is gone for good. CATS is probably the most wonderful musical I've ever seen! It's the only musical, besides the Lion King, that the actors aren't humans, they're cats!
I dare you to think of any other musical where the actors aren't human! Pretty hard, right?
I love being in the theatre because then I can get away from reality and be someone new! When I think of being in CATS I think of myself as an animal and not have to worry about stress, pressure, school, parents, the way society looks at me, and all those other human stress factors that I have to put up with!
Imagine yourself far away from human society, in your own world, with no worries, no pressures, no stress, no horrible wars, or violence, or crimes, or anything else. It's your own world and you can create everything there, it's up to you what you want in it and how life should be.
That's the way I feel about theatre! My world is a stage!
Now picture yourself as an animal, any animal. Think of the way they live, the ways they act, behave, and socialize (if at all).
Wonderful isn't it? They don't have the pressure from other members of their species calling them names, or staring at them for having a disability, or being different from them. Animals accept each other for who they are. They would only reject them if they were a threat to their safety, not to their reputation.
I'm usually that 'odd one' sometimes it's good to be odd, out there, strange, or weird! But other times, it's not, and it hurts when others stare.
At the workshop, I was the odd one, and it wasn't good. They all stared and probably thought to themselves: What is she doing here? She can't dance!
CATS is my relief from everyday, human life. I sometimes hate being human and trapped in this social life and government system we have. Sometimes I get so sick of the laws and restrictions on us, and how everyone is labeled. White, black, adult, teen, juvenile, Hispanic, Dutch, French, jock, geek, social butterfly. Do animals have these? No!
Is that a fact that animals don't have these? We don't know!
I wish I weren't human. I wish I really could be a cat and run away to where ever I please, to spend time with other cats who would accept me for who I am. To be so agile and graceful that I could leap higher, run faster, and be more stealthily than any old human could!
Theatre and acting is my escape from everything, it's my way to forget all my troubles. It's my way to leave reality behind and step into a fantasy world of my own. It's where I can close my eyes, and just get lost in my fantasy world.
Theatre is a way to leave everything behind and become someone, or something new.
Reality stinks, long live theatre.
CATS now and forever!