Playing Myself Again

Guest blogging by Tammy Batey. -ed.

Much of the fun of acting involves doing something onstage that has nothing to do with your reality. Among the future characters on my theatre bucket list are: a killer; a prostitute; a murder victim; a drug addict; and a fighter (and I’m talking knock-down, drag-out fight onstage). The chance to slip into a role and temporarily become someone so different is challenging and exciting.

But playing someone similar to yourself offers its own rewards, as I was reminded on Monday night. At that night’s rehearsal, we rehearsed the press conference scene where a politician shares the news of Wedgewood Witness, the fastest growing political blog in the Pacific Northwest. I play Reporter 2 in the scene.

Having worked as a newspaper reporter for eight years, I slid into the part like I was putting on a much-loved, super comfortable coat. In the scene, I stand, trusty notebook in hand, and furiously write everything that transpires during the press conference. I question the politician running the press conference. In my previous career as a reporter, I covered press conferences and I questioned politicians. Rehearsing that scene felt familiar and easy and real.

My comfortable familiarity with the scene goes further than the setting. Reporter 2 is earnest and takes her job very seriously. Her aim is to report thoroughly so she can write the best article published on the press conference. When I worked as a reporter, I took the job very seriously. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have an absolute blast doing it but if you saw me, you might wonder.

A photographer snapped a photo of me once during a tour of a laboratory. I was working at the Tracy Press at the time. I’m wearing my reporter uniform of silk top, navy blue skirt, hose and flats. I’m holding my trusty notebook and pen and studying the laboratory equipment that the tour guide is pointing to with intense seriousness. I apparently wrote my articles with the same intense look because my co-workers would often tell me, “Relax” or “Smile” when they’d walk by my desk. 

What can I say? Even now that I’m in marketing, I attack projects with intense, serious focus, as my cat Zen can attest, when he’s trying to get my attention and I’m typing away on the laptop. So I can relate to Reporter 2. She wants to ensure that every quote is accurate by writing down every word possible. She takes her job seriously. But, never, for even one second, doubt that Reporter 2 is having the time of her life up there. As will I.