I'll admit it when I'm wrong... this acting thing is harder than I thought

When people find out that I've been cast in a play, they usually say something along the lines of, "I didn't know you were an actress!"

Lately, I've been correcting them, saying, "I'm not. I just play one in this one play."

Acting is a lot harder than I thought.

During our first rehearsal, the director began by telling us a little bit about our characters, so we could "start making some decisions" on what we were going to do with them.

Um, my character- Miss Dee - is a poet and a teacher, so doesn't that mean that what I'll be doing is pretending to be a poet and a teacher? Absolutely not.

Apparently, what that means is we are supposed to decide how we're going to play our characters. Is my character the type of teacher who's loud and loves attention or quiet and timid? Is she exploring or struggling with her life in some way? What are her mannerisms like? Does she have an accent?

I learned this after hearing the actual actresses say things like, "I want to explore my character's sexuality a little bit. Maybe she's struggling with the fact that she's a lesbian." Or, "I feel like my character is funny and could say some of the lines louder with maybe a Bronx-like accent." Etc.

I contributed very little to this discussion because I thought I was just supposed to follow the stage directions, like when it says, "she shakes her fist" I should, well, shake my fist.

There is a little more to this acting thing than I originally thought. I really hope I don't suck at it.