Taking a Breath

First, if you haven't seen Our Town, you really should. It's very good. Probably one of the best shows I've ever been in. But don't take my word for it, come and see it. Seriously. I'm not joking or hyperbolizing, it's just good.

The first weekend was, I thought, all in all a success. Friday's night show was amazing, we had a big old packed house of receptive audience members who gave off such a great energy and were such a joy to perform for, that the show really sung. Saturday was trickier, it being the second show which can lead to a sort of weird energy sometimes when you come off the high of opening, coupled with the awful weather, and the subsequently much smaller crowd. Regardless the people who were that night said they really enjoyed it, I'm sure they weren't aware of the little trip ups we had along the way. Today's show again had a smaller crowd, but we hit the ground running and I thought it was equal to Friday's showing.

Now that the first weekend is out of the way... I can take a breath. For the moment, I can stop living and breathing Our Town all the time. I'm sure you know the feeling, you go into those final few runs pre tech, really putting the show together, polishing the final things to be polished before adding lights and sound. Then your in the space, on the stage, oh wait you have to make that entrance a few lines sooner, because the corridor is longer then how you blocked it. These steps are narrower then we expected, oh and they aren't completely built yet. Step into the light. Wait for the sound cue. Hold please, while I program this lighting cue. 12 hours later you go home. Come back the next night, do it for six hours, go home, come back, do that again. You really find everything there is to find in the role, in the space, in the moment with the lights and the sound and your fellow actors... it's exhilarating and exhausting. When you go into it ill prepared, unsure if the show will really come together and the problems can be fixed, it's terrifying. Comparatively, this was less of that then a lot of the tech experiences I've had, scrambling to make all the pieces fit together. And then, when opening night comes and everything clicks... what a fantastic feeling.

So that has been the past week for me. It's been maybe the most satisfying theatrical experience I've had to date, in terms of everything going fantastically technically, with a super group of people and most of all envisioning a goal for my own performance, and achieving it. A lot of that had to do with my director, Jason, who was a total joy to work with, and with my own advancement artistically as an actor.

But coming home from tonight's matinee, I take a breath. Six more performances to go... but until this Friday, I can think about something else! OK, this is me, doing that.