I think I was born to do theater.

I am a person who wants to stay up late and then sleep-in.

Now that I work part time (from home) and only have to be on the clock from 1 pm to 5 pm, I can indulge my natural penchant for being a night person.

I also have to say it helps me sleep better.

I stay up until I am truly tired; so when my head hits that pillow, I drift off to dreamland fairly quickly.

If I go to bed before I am exhausted, I will lay there wondering what time is it now?  Maybe I should just get up.  Why aren’t I asleep yet?  Running lines (for whatever show I am doing now or how much do I remember from the last show I did).  Thinking of things from my misspent youth that I truly regret.  What’s going on tomorrow?  Etc.

None of these things are conducive to falling asleep.

None of these things are conducive to creating pleasant dreams.

And once I get my fat old lady ass out of bed in the morning, I need 3 cups of coffee to get myself thoroughly woke.

Two will not do it.

I need that third one to finally kick things into gear.

When you do theater, this is how you want your body to be – to be ready to go at 8 pm, and to keep going until at least 11 pm.

And post show, you need wind-down time.

That’s one thing that was great about performing at casinos – they stay open 24/7.

The trouble is – most people do not live their life like that – even if they want to, they are not able to because most people work some version of 9-5.

So theater people’s opportunities for human interaction drops significantly.

This may be one reason why people involved with live theater are part of a relatively small and insular community.

Our circadian rhythm is naturally askew.

But then I’m a white girl from Michigan – I have no sense of rhythm of any sort.