Hi Dusty,
Just to start off by saying that dreams use analogy and metaphor to express their “as if” meaning, and your outer experience regarding the stage is a very apt, ready-made, and meaningful comparison that your dream appears to be making full use of.
A key to finding out a dream’s core meaning usually involves looking carefully at those points in it that clearly deviate from outer reality in some way.
In this case, as you realize, the main difference is that the outer performance was a success but the one shown in the dream was not.
Basically then, it’s likely that your dream is trying to clarify the situation where perhaps mostly unconsciously, you tend to feel too much anxiety regarding how you measure up when you feel you are being judged by others as a whole (“on stage” for all to see and give a verdict on your “performance”).
The dream looks like it is saying that you really shouldn’t feel so concerned about “what others think” (reassured by fellow actors that you will do fine; the outer show was a real success).
It’s possible that perhaps there is also a tendency for you to “cover up” your real feelings (applying a lot o make-up) and you might even sometimes hide or minimize real talents and abilities because these could upset a pleasant feeling atmosphere by making others jealous for example (burlesque costume). This way of acting may have taken root while you were at school for instance.
The pristine clarity of some of the things overheard might point to how actively you may pursue a sort of perfectionist attitude that will satisfy the outer demands of others (the critical teacher who wants “the best”; the audience).
This could also be echoed in the images of wanting to be “finished and ready” regarding your hair and make-up, and of being “clean” (already had shower),
The dream could be saying that in this situation which perhaps may be present too frequently, your “best friend” might be an attitude that uses less “make-up” and accepts yourself as you are, maybe just as your outer friend did.
Dreams often naturally follow the form of a play, that is, location and time are defined (theatre, the past/present), characters are introduced (fellow actors, teacher), plot complications are introduced (feel rushed and afraid, forget lyrics and steps), then a climax occurs (curtain crashes down, show cancelled), followed by a denouement (berated by teacher, show going to start again).
It’s possible that the dream is therefore depicting a certain repeated round where the same “characters” inside you do the same thing, that is, you may tend to get ready for the “show” of life by applying an outer mask in order to understandably please others, then anxiety and feelings of imminent failure may appear because actually the real you is not being expressed enough deep down (burlesque); a sense of “collapse” may sometimes occur because of this situation (curtain crashes, all is revealed), followed by harsh internal self-judgemental thoughts (teacher), then perhaps a round of perfectionism begins once more in order to please others too much instead of working at developing your multi-faceted true nature (show will start again).
It’s likely that currently being without work and on the point of a move far away, plus even the discomfort from your tooth have all added up to bring on feelings of anxiety about the future and doubts about how well you will be able to handle things. Or perhaps these feelings have been denied too much in some way so that the dream has pictured a total theatrical disaster in order to make you sit up and take notice of your current emotions.
In any case, as mentioned, the dream appears to be trying to reassure you that if you just keep trying to accept yourself as you are instead of perhaps trying to please others too much of the time, you can break a potentially upsetting round of self-rejection and disbelief in your own innate talents and abilities. Some assertiveness tips might help to counter-balance any tendency to be without personal boundaries too often, and these could be found in “Asserting Yourself” by Bower and Bower, or in “Your Perfect Right” by Alberti and Emmons.
Since you are still young and just starting out, such feelings of being judged are very common but sticking firmly to your own beliefs, values and talents will help to develop a compromise attitude that can balance out the need to be yourself while still fitting in with outer society in a reasonable way.
Many women find Marion Woodman’s ideas helpful in maintaining such a balanced approach to life overall and you might like to browse her book titles at a site like amazon for example or many of them can also be found at www.innercitybooks.net . You could also check out www.mwoodman.org to read interviews with her etc. to see if her approach might click with you in some way.
I hope these brief ideas about your dream will help to decipher its personal meaning in some way and I also hope that everything works out well with your upcoming move.
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