In theatre, it's almost impossible to always get the role you want. You will eventually find yourself in a role you either didn't want or didn't expect. The craziest times are often when you are cast in a role in which you aren't the same gender as the character. If you know what I'm talking about, kudos. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, sit back and enjoy this crazy look into the life of a theatre kid.
1. Makeup is the ultimate struggle.
You always have to do something more than just regular stage makeup to make the role more realistic. As a girl playing a guy, this tends to be a bit of facial hair or maybe even a more chiseled face. For a guy playing a girl, oh boy is it a lot of makeup. You've got your foundation, you contour, your highlight, your blush, your powder, your eyes, and your lips. And that's just basic stage makeup! Some characters require even more!
2. Your voice is always either too high or too low.
There's no perfect balance to any of it, and a lot of the time trying to mimic the voice of the other gender can be completely ridiculous! It almost always ends up being stereotypical and that super high voice for girls and the super low voice for guys. Trust me, it's a wild time trying to perfect this.
3. Your costume is probably meant to fit the other body type.
I recently played the role of Rochefort in Silverado's production of "The Three Musketeers," and my favorite part of this character was the absolutely badass costume I had... except the silk shirt I wore. This shirt was split straight down the chest and covered in laced strings, like the one in the picture. This shirt would have looked great on a guy with broad shoulders and defined pecs, but me? A small girl with boobs that barely filled it out? Yeah, it was a struggle. That's not even me going into a guy having to wear a dress. That's an entirely different can of worms.
4. It becomes all you're known for.
"Hey, remember that time you wore a dress on stage?" "How come you played a guy in that one show you did twelve years ago?" "Wow, you're playing a guy again! Throwback to..." Yeah, this is all we hear. It can get exhausting, let me tell you that.
5. Suddenly this becomes the only type of roll you're considered for.
You can just see that glint in your casting director's eye that says, "Hey, they played a guy/girl that one time and they pulled it off. They're gonna do it again." It's as awful as it sounds. It's a kind of typecasting that is so hard to get away from because for some reason you become the only person who is capable of playing these roles. Trust me, it isn't that hard. Anyone else could do it. Please let me be a girl again.
If you couldn't tell, this is all based off of personal experience. Being a theatre kid can be interesting sometimes.
