Actor Nightmares

For years I’ve heard stories about actor nightmares. That nightmare an actor has that is something along the lines of being onstage with no clothes, forgetting all your lines, going on for a role that you’ve never done before & don’t know any of your blocking or lines, or something else completely crazy.

I’ve heard actors have them when they are under lots of stress. Maybe during tech week, or right before a big audition.

I wouldn’t know. I’m not an actor. I’ve not acted in anything since high school. In fact, it was my junior year of high school, so it’s been….a while.

But every now and then I still have actor nightmares. A little over a year ago I had on in which I WAS an actor that I LOVE but when I went on to do my (HER??) role, I didn’t know any of the music or choreography. It was STRANGE.

Then, last night I had a dream that I was in the ensemble of Legally Blonde: The Musical. The tall, blonde lead got suddenly ill during the show and the director said, “You need to go on. They’ll never know the difference.”

Um, I’m short. And brunette. And in my dream none of the costumes fit me and I didn’t know any of my lines (I’m beginning to see a recurring theme here).  And the audience did notice.

I get that actors have dreams like that. But why ME?? And what on earth brings them on? Other than having recently seen a production of Legally Blonde: The Musical, there’s nothing that I can think of that would make me have a crazy dream like that. Do any of my non –actor friends have dreams like this? 

Here's one of my favorite songs in Legally Blonde: The Musical from the performance filmed for MTV.