Blog # 7 My Acting Debut By Ron Pasowicz




What an adventure of traveling and performing in a foreign land!

While we were stateside, I was amazed at how many rehearsals were required for the play Prodigal! We performed this 2-Act play here in Oceanside, California, before taking it to Ukraine in October of 2018.

At first, I was “all nerves” and a bit apprehensive, as this was my first time acting on stage in my life! Besides that, we were going to take it to Ukraine, too! Wow! When we left the USA, I had all of the normal worries. Was I any good? Would the play be accepted? Would anyone even show up? A lot of European countries have many more performances and are much more sophisticated, or so I had heard. You could say that I had my doubts about my undertaking!

When we got there, we performed in 4 different locations and 3 different cities. One of the theatres was very old. All of the other actors, the Director and the support crew (make-up and running crew) were fantastic! I don’t think that even professional plays could have had better support. We had our challenges, like being in a foreign country with a different language, and performing in a theatre that was almost 100 years old! However, the members of our technical team did an unbelievable job.

Our Ukrainian hosts did a great job in setting up and scheduling everything. They spent many hours communicating and staying in touch with our American team leaders, Don & Beverly. We have been asked to come back again, which is a good sign. They would welcome us back with the same play or another one. The end result of our tour was that over 700 people came out to see the play, and everyone was very excited about it. 
Many university students enjoyed it and came to meet with us at a coffee shop afterwards, to practice their English and to discuss the play.

All of my worry and nervousness not only disappeared, but it gave me a desire to return to Ukraine or another foreign country and maybe even perform again. I believe that a professional theatrical performance can reach many people, leaving them encouraged and uplifted. It is a great way to have a cross-cultural experience and even make new friends around the world.

When you travel and work with people in another country, besides the new friends, the cultural differences give you the desire to learn more. Travel is an education. You learn about the people and they learn about you, finally realizing that they are not that different from you! I wish that everyone could have the opportunity to travel to another country, not so much as a vacation, but as more of a cultural exchange of ideas and friendship.

I so look forward to my next performance in acting or in a support role, especially doing it abroad with Hidden Treasure Productions!

It was fun and exciting!


Edited By: Beverly Dennison

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Low-Cost Outreach to the Fiji Island

Fundraising for Hidden Treasure Productions

Come join us in Bali, Indonesia