Berkeley Rep Blog

Previous entry: Theatre people heart free food
Next entry: Yellow fever

My first kiss... at least on stage

posted by Joan Anderson on Mon, Oct 6, 2008
in At the theatre

Kissing on stage has always been the most terrifying part of performing to me. During my freshman year in college, when it came to the day when we had to practice stage-kissing...I skipped it (OOPS).

Imagine my excitement when I arrived at Berkeley Rep as an intern and was offered an understudy role in our world premiere of Yellowjackets. Now imagine the change in my expression when I read the script and realized my understudy role called for a big, fat kiss--not just one, but two. 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I was extremely excited to have this understudy opportunity, but my spirits just sank to the bottom of my gut when I found out I had to kiss a stranger. When the first rehearsal rolled around, I was shaking in my boots, wondering what it would be like. "And please," I thought, "let my partner be attractive. Lessen the blow just a little bit." 

To my immense relief, my stage partner is an attractive young man--and that's half the battle. Then, during the first understudy rehearsal, another pair of actors had to kiss...and they did an awesome job. Being the competitive overachiever that I am, I told my scene partner that they just could not show us up. So when it was our turn I told him,"Let's just go for it."

It was hilarious and awkward. There we were, trying to have this intimate moment, and we weren't off book yet--so we were trying to kiss and look down at our scripts at the same time. 

Well I survived, and I can look back now and say it wasn't so bad after all. I'm still not a big fan, but I will live to kiss in another play.

The picture: Matt Hudson and me, practicing.