A rock and a hard place.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m a pledge to the actors’ honor fraternity, and this is my initiation week, which entails ALWAYS having good candy for the members I see, and getting 10 member signatures and the signature of the head of the theatre department before Friday night at 11.

Cool enough, I says. Even if they make me do humiliating stuff to get the signatures and humiliate me even further on Friday night, that’s fine. It’s just a week, then I’ll be a member.

Then Saturday I’ll be performing 14 lines of Shakespeare at the Open Mic Night (called Guerrilla Theatre) that we host. I’m cool with that, too–hell, it’s fun.

The party after Guerrilla Theatre is what bothers me. We’re all invited to attend; I don’t think it’s absolutely mandatory, but it’s understood that everyone will be there, and drinking games will be played until everyone’s good and drunk.

Here’s the thing: I DON’T get drunk. I might drink, but never even enough to get me tipsy. I don’t like losing control over my body, especially with people I’ve only known for three months and haven’t given me great reasons to trust them. Maybe my prior experiences have left me a more cynical person but I just don’t want to go to this party and get drunk. I’d rather hang out with my boy (since I didn’t get to see him for a week and there’s a chance that I won’t get to see him for awhile after this semester of college).

I think I’m going to make a short appearance at the party, say my hellos, talk a little, and then come back here to chill with him.

I refuse to get drunk. I don’t mind getting humiliated, but I will not put myself in a situation that I’ve never been in and that could possibly lead to Bad Things™ happening.

I mean, am I a spoilsport for this? Anything that I can do to lessen the chances of rape/assault I do, getting drunk off my ass is one of them.

2

Not at all…You can be the sober one in case something does go out of hand, and all you have to do is drink slowly, or water your drinks down. They should be too drunk to notice.

3

I don’t think you’re a spoilsport for not wanting to get falling-down plastered. Whether or not to drink, and how much to drink, is solely the choice of the person whose liver has to deal with it.

Go along, stay for awhile. If things start getting out of hand, you can always leave and, you never know, there might even be one or two other halfway-sober people there.

If you’ve got a mobile, you can always get a phone call - something about some problem you’ve got to go deal with.

4

No, you’re not. If the inductee had kidney problems, were Muslim/Jehovahs whatever, allergic to alcohol, driving, recovering from alcoholism, pregnant, they wouldn’t be expected to drink surely. So why should you?

Offer to do a particularly embarrassing forfeit instead or something, if you feel obligated. It should be even harder sober!

5

I don’t belong to a fraternity, but I run into the same problem every year at a magic convention I go to. We have our Friday evening show, then at Midnight, a bunch of us are always expected to be at this bonfire where everyone gets good and drunk. Much falling down occurs. The first couple of years I was given hell for not drinking, but they soon respected me for it… and they also realized that having a sober person there was good should somone come by asking questions.

I wouldn’t worry about it. Stick to your guns and let your frat brothers know you mean business when you refuse to drink. If they really respect you, they’ll understand. Plus you get to laugh at them all night and also remember what actually happened during the whole thing.

6

I don’t know what College/University you are attending…but, I don’t think you will have any problems this week. I believe you are talking about Alpha Psi Omega, and, since as you stated, it is an HONOR fraternity not a Social one…I don’t believe you will be forced to do anything like drinking, if you don’t drink. I remember having to do a few silly things…my biggest concern was having to learn the Greek alphabet.

Good Luck!

Just curious…what are you doing from Shakespeare??

I still break out into “Letter for Letter, but that the name of Page and Ford differs, to thy great comfort…”, from Merry Wives of Windsor.

Polly

7

ACT!

You’re an actor?!

ACT drunk!

8

I was going to say something sarcastic about succumbing to peer pressure to do potentially life-threatening things being part of the college/greek experience, but GrizzRich had a much better idea.

Some other things I’ve heard of:

  1. Slip the bartender a $20 at the beginning of the night and ask to have your drinks watered, and then only drink things you get from him.

  2. Order a whiskey and nurse it slowly all night. People will see you drinking hard stuff and say, whoa, hardcore. Then you can go with GrizzRich’s suggestion.

  3. Stand up for your rights as a human being and refuse to drink if you don’t want to, with the understanding that an unwillingness to drink may render you undesirable for membership into the August Fraternity of Drunken Acting Students.

9

PW Doodle: Thanks for the advice. I’m doing “If we shadows have offended,” Puck’s last speech in Midsummer Night’s.

To the rest of you who have offered advice: Thank you.

GrizzRich, if I COULD act drunk, I would have used the talent even before now.