JUST hours before she makes her theatre bow in Dahlia Harris’ play Thicker Than Water, journalist Janella Precius is apprehensive.

The production marks the debut in local commercial theatre for the St Lucia-born Precius, an anchor/reporter with Television Jamaica.

She takes on the role of Gabrielle, a woman she describes as being in her mid-30s,uptight, but who also has a fun side.

The decision to venture onto the stage did not come easily for Precius, despite behind the scenes experience in her native St Lucia, and with the University Dramatic Arts Society (UDAS) while a student at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies.

While admitting that her work with UDAS is vastly different from Thicker Than Water, Precius’ apprehension stems from the fact that she is not Jamaican.

“I had reservations about taking on the role as I don’t speak patois very well… I mean having lived here for some time I can speak it, but for me it sounds weird. So when Dahlia [Harris] asked me to be part of the cast, I said no, but she convinced me,” she told Splash.

Precius says she finds the worlds of television and stage different.

“This acting thing is hard,” she says bursting into laughter. “In television, it’s all prepared. There is a script and tele-prompter from which I read, but theatre is live; the audience will be right there and I have to take on this character once the curtains open… and oh… I must learn my lines.”

It is that final element that has her most nervous — not remembering her lines and freezing on stage.

Precius notes that the cast of Thicker Than Water — headed by Harris, who is also writer, director and producer — has embraced her.

This camaraderie goes against the plot of Thicker Than Water, which looks at office in-fighting among females, something Precius says she knows nothing about.

“My experience is very different. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I do a lot of work outside the office so I have none of that experience, but I have heard horror stories from other females.”

Thicker Than Water opens this evening at Stages Theatreplex In New Kingston.