My hands have been permanently burned from my own negligence with a curling wand. I have spent hours scraping paint off of the floor of the Student Activities Building. Occasionally, someone on the carpentry team has handed me a power tool with directions on what to drill… and I opt to hand the screws back to them. I’ve stacked dozens and dozens of chairs, folded tables, bobby-pinned countless curls, zipped up costumes and hairspray-ed so many updos I think there is hairspray permanently in my bloodstream. All of this is part of show week for First Year Players — tonight is our opening production of “Merrily We Roll Along.” An entire semester’s worth of work is finally being displayed this weekend.
FYP is one of the largest student-run organizations on Grounds and once you’ve joined this company, it’s easy to see why. The effort it takes to receive rights to put on a show, get a creative team together, cast students, rehearse the show, design and build its set, get every technical piece working in sync, market the production and keep it running smoothly takes an army. And not just any army — it takes a group of people who are willing to dedicate their entire semester to three quick days of actual performance; hundreds of hours go into four shows. If you ask anyone involved, though, it is unbelievably worth it.
While I’ve been straightening, braiding and curling hair to help the cast get ready for their dress rehearsals, I’ve realized something interesting. Each person who spends their energy on this show has a particular job to do, but the execution of that task does not keep them from helping others in any way they can. The assistance we all provide each other is often comprised of small things like grabbing a cast member a costume piece or lending a hand during a scene change, but the size of this assistance is not what’s really important. Simply going out of your way, without the intent to be noticed or thanked, in order to make someone else’s experience easier is what, I believe, makes an organization like FYP so great.
It would be simple to keep to yourself, get your job done and get to bed earlier during the craziness of show week, but the environment of FYP fosters a desire to be there for your friends, for members you do not even know and for the creative goal you’re all striving toward.
I don’t claim to know every inner working of FYP, but it has been such a gift to be involved in the small and unique ways I can. I’ve realized that, at the end of the day, you don’t have to be the person who is calling every shot or delegating every task in order to obtain a sense of accomplishment or value. Taking a moment to appreciate the seemingly miniscule gestures of kindness and sacrifice is its own reward. This is why those hundreds of hours are worth it — to be a functioning part of something great, serving a purpose I couldn’t achieve on my own. This is what every semester has been about for FYP, and I know this is what it will continue to be about in the future.
Mimi’s column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached at m.robinson@cavalierdaily.com.
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