Currently performing with the San Francisco Mime Troupe in its summer show. This is my 30th year with the Mime Troupe. MY 30TH YEAR. 30. YEARS. The Mime Troupe was always the company I wanted to perform with, and sometimes it feels like a blink of an eye, but sometimes it feels like a looooonnng time. One thing that is difficult is the knowledge that I've gone from the upstart kid to the old guy people think is in the way.
There's a scene at the beginning of the film "butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," ( a script my sister and I memorized as children in our planning to reshoot the entire film starring us) in which a poker game is being played in a saloon. One man is accursed of cheating at poker, and the man making the accusation is ready to have a duel with his opponent - until he realizes its the Sundance Kid. The man backs down, and Butch says Sundance they should leave. But Sundance doesn't want to go, feeling that would be a sort of victory for his accuser. Instead he says he will only leave if they are invited to stay. He wants it to be up to him, and he's just contrary enough to need that invitation, to not feel forced out. In the end the man asks them to stick around, and Butch and Sundance tell him they have to go.
And my contrary personality doesn't want to let me leave if I know people want me to leave. That's an annoying quality to have. Unless you're the Sundance Kid...