And then everything changed

Well things were going swimmingly with my Redeye piece a couple of weeks ago. I had a showing with Steve and Mirium and my fellow Works in Progress artists, and got some really great feedback about the work that I've been doing. I felt like I was finding some really cool movement with Romina and Maggie was helping me find the shape of the piece.

But a week ago, suddenly, my arm swelled to three times its normal size. I spent about a week in the hospital, had several procedures, and one major operation, and the long and the short of it is- I am currently in absolutely no physical condition to realize the piece as it had been progressing.

I'm going to have to rethink things. Currently, I can barely sit up, let alone roll around on the floor and balance on my shoulder and do various other things I was planning on doing. I'm going to have to go back to the text, go back to the ideas I want to convey, and figure out how to realize those ideas in a way that my body can handle at this time.

It's hard, emotionally. While I know that I could certainly revisit the piece at a later time when my body is healthier, I am sad to find myself with these limitations. This has happened twice in my life before. Once, when I was in college. I was going to be playing Medea and I lost my voice. I went to see a voice therapist and had to figure out a way to play the part without shouting, growling, or doing anything extreme with my voice. In a way it was a great thing to have happened, because I found all kinds of colors to the character that I might not have otherwise found. Another similar experience was when I played Puck, and I had to have knee surgery a couple weeks before opening night. For that performance, I did feel that I lost some of my original character, although I guess I did have to figure out how to act the role without the use of acrobatics.

I emailed Mirium today and told her what happened, and she was very encouraging. She said exactly what I was already thinking: that perhaps this is a good thing, because it will force me to re-examine the piece almost from scratch. Sometimes limitations can be good things.

I'm going to probably take a few days off from thinking about it. I have to get caught up with work, and I still have a lot of resting to do. Hopefully by next week I can begin again. We'll see what happens.