This was the show
that almost got away. Almost.
Twenty-eight
months. Twenty. Eight. Months. Two and a quarter years. After Mary Poppins Jr. that’s how long it was
before I set foot on a stage again. The last time I went so long without a show
was sixteen months and I thought then that was a very long period. For a time, I wondered whether I’d ever set foot on
a stage again.
The Covid-19
pandemic stopped everything. Shows closed and seasons cancelled one right after
another in quick succession. The pandemic brought a change in the theatre scene
by one or two companies having their shows be presented over Zoom. I watched
one show on that platform and that was quite enough. The format evolved over
time, but it didn't matter to me. While there were auditions for shows that
would be done in that format, I refused to even consider it because, in my
opinion, that is not a live theatre experience. As the shutdowns extended from
weeks to months to a year, I could nothing but wait. Wait for a vaccine. Wait
for the state to reopen. Wait for live theatre to return, which for the longest
time, I honestly thought would be never, because I thought people would be too
afraid to be in close proximity with each other ever again.
As the state
slowly started to reopen, little things came back one at a time: Seeing one or
two friends in person, going to see a movie at the cinema, going to a baseball
game and even a trip to
Around that same
time, theatre companies began trickling out a show or two that they would start
off with before attempting a full season, and they requested audition
videos.
Audition videos. I
had experienced those the previous year when everyone thought the shutdowns
would be a couple weeks or, at most, a month and the companies hoped to carry
on in the summer or fall. I did not like this way of auditioning as much as in person. There were benefits to recording a video such as doing several takes until you were satisfied, wearing comfortable clothing from the waist down and, if you were singing, using a karaoke track and glancing at the lyrics to keep in time with the music. But I found it to be too
restricting and too impersonal for my taste. But I suppose everyone wanted to
take baby steps, even with the vaccines. The previous year I had to do them in
my garage, which actually had good acoustics, but the lighting left something to be
desired. This time around, one of my roommates had moved out and a new one
still hadn't moved in, so I was able to use that room.
But I’m probably just rambling on. Let's get on with how I was cast in this particular show. Marin Musical Theatre Company announced this show by way of their Instagram page. For four days they posted a new post which had one word in capital letters each day that spelled out "NO DAY BUT TODAY," with the last one having the poster design. When it came time to send in an audition video, they also asked only for a song and I found that, for me, it was easier said than done.
I had never
thought I would ever do Rent because when I was in college, the
director of the musical theatre program (who was also my first voice teacher)
did not think much of Rent or rock musicals in general. She was more inclined
to lean towards older musicals with a classical approach in singing. Basically,
she never did anything past the 80s and even in musicals written in that decade
she didn't do rock musicals. Not only that, but rock musicals are notoriously
unkind to baritones, with the songs being written for those with tenor
voices. Or at least baritones that can go very high.
I racked my
brains trying to think of a song that I could sing. The directors
said people auditioning were allowed to sing a song from Rent if
they were auditioning for a certain role, but I wouldn't do that. It's a
cardinal rule in theatre not to do that because the director might have a
certain view of the role and if you do it a different way, they might not
consider you at all. I could think of a couple songs from musicals like Spring
Awakening, Aida, or Hair that I could manage. I had
to use a karaoke track to sing them, but I quickly discovered that was a
problem. Most of the videos on YouTube had the music, but not the lyrics, or if
they had the lyrics, they didn't have a moving symbol that changed the color of
the lyrics to help you stay in time with the music. I thought if nothing else I could do "The Flesh Failures"
from Hair which had the requirements, even if it had a bad cut
off time for roughly one minute of singing.
And then one
night, as I lay in bed, it hit me. I hadn't thought of the musical Next
to
I was excited and
nervous to attend the callbacks. First, we had to submit proof of vaccination,
though that was not always a guarantee of safety. But that was the least of my
worries. Thankfully, the songs I would sing would be done first, then a break
while they did the other groups, then the dancing part and I'd be done. For the
singing, we had to go in by groups and sing the parts we were assigned by role
on the website. In my foolishness I did not notice that I'd been prepping the
wrong song until I was in the theatre with three other people (all women),
standing in front of the keyboard and they started singing something I didn't
know. I quickly went to the website to see what was happening and at the
end of the list of sides, I saw something I hadn't noticed before and I thought
I had looked at all the parts.
It turned out
that I had been looking at the "featured ensemble" parts,
which were "Will I?" and "Christmas Bells 1," not just
"ensemble". I was supposed to be singing "Christmas Bells
2." I don't know how I could have missed it. After getting a brief lesson in how
it goes, the four of us had to sing it one by one. I muddled through it the
best I could. Fortunately, I was not the first in the group to sing and it was a manageable piece.
Before moving on to the principal roles, the dancing part of the audition was
next.
I thought it was
odd they were doing a dancing audition. I suppose it was to see how well people
moved because I've seen Rent and, with the exception of
"La Vie Boheme," there was no big dance number for the cast. Part way
through the routine we had to do three little jumps and at one point I landed
with my feet in a wrong position, and I felt a painful sensation in the top of
my foot. I soldiered on and by the time we did the routine in little groups, I
thought I had it down, but when it came to it, I didn't. Even so, it felt good
to be back inside a performance space and leave hot and sweaty.
At the auditions
the director, Jenny Boynton and the choreographer, Katie Wickes, reveled in the
fact that Marin Musical Theatre Company was at long last doing this show.
Apparently, they had applied for the rights to this show multiple times, only to
be turned down each time because Rent was often on tour. In fact, Katie
eventually received a personalized letter from Music Theatre International, the
company that owned the rights, saying that the reason they were always turned
down wasn’t personal; it was just because the rights weren’t available to
anyone because of the tours. But then when the pandemic stopped all the tours
and professional shows, they realized this was their chance and they grabbed
it. To which I quipped, “So it only took a pandemic for this show to happen.”
I received the
email about casting the very next day. The first line I saw read "Michael,
thank you for auditioning for..." Holding my breath, I opened the email
and saw that I was cast in the ensemble. In all honesty I was rather grateful
not to be one of the principal characters. It had been so long since I had
looked at the music that I'd forgotten just how difficult it was. After the
strenuous singing I had to do years earlier in Reefer Madness, I
was a bit relieved not to have to put my voice through that again.
As I found out several months later during the run, Jenny and I were reminiscing about the auditions. At one point I mentioned how I had auditioned for their show The Sound of Music. Come to think of it, that was the first time I ever made an audition video. That show was planned for the fall of 2020, when everyone thought Covid restrictions would be a month at most, but ultimately it didn't happen. I remarked how much easier it was for me to find an audition song for that show. She responded by saying it was my dance audition that made her cast me in this show. She said she was looking for “that kind of energy.” I’ll take it.
Also cast in the
show were Nelson Brown, Shayla Lawler, Jake Gale, Philip Percy Williams,
Lindsay Ford, Arup Chakrabarti, Anna Vorperian, Stephen Kanaski, Amy Dietz,
Fiorella Garcia, Jesse Lumb, Willow Mae, Jacarius Yavarr Murphy, Alexandra
Rosen, Elise Terry, as well as Katie and Jenny being in the show and
alternating performances.
It was a full
month before my first rehearsal. And when it finally came, we hammered through
the songs with Daniel Savio, the music director, one right after another. I was
worried about getting the songs down because to tell the truth, I didn't ever
listen to the entire soundtrack for Rent more than once. I
opted instead to listen to "The Best of Rent" soundtrack which had
the main songs, most of which had only the principal roles and if there were
ensemble parts in them, I never could hear those parts.
Not listening to
the entire soundtrack would come back to get me. A couple rehearsals in, we
were assigned our ensemble parts. I was really hoping for the squeegee man and
the restaurant man role in “La Vie Boheme,” but both those roles went to Jesse.
The roles I was given, Paul and The Man, were in “Life Support” and “Christmas
Bells,” respectively. While “Life Support” was on “The Best of Rent,” I usually
skipped over it. When we first learned that song I didn’t know it at all and I
thought “Uh-oh, I’m in trouble.” The next day I listened to that song and only
that song on my thirty minute drive to work. If the music director from my
college musicals saw me doing that she would have been really grumpy. She
wouldn’t have been completely wrong about not doing that because the recording
and the actual music in any musical are never quite the
same. I also opted to listen to another song I usually skipped, “I’ll Cover You
(reprise)” and after listening to it again I realized I didn’t dislike it as
much as I previously thought.
“Christmas Bells”
was another matter entirely. While I only had to deal with one person with my
lines in “Life Support,” in this song I had to deal a few people singing their
parts while trying to keep in time with the music. In time I learned to listen
to those who sang the junkie’s lines for my cues.
But, oh my god, after
we had the first read/sing through night I had so much fun, and I could see that
this cast was going to be a good one. I thought to myself "I'm going to
love doing this show! I’d forgotten just how much fun these songs are!”
Like the
characters in the show, we also had a pandemic hanging over our heads. Due to
Covid cases rising at that time, the directors opted to have rehearsals
outdoors at either Jenny's or Katie's houses. Even before the rehearsals, I
felt uneasy. In spite of the vaccination progress, a new wave of cases from the
Delta variant was starting to rise at the end of July. Always at the back of my
mind was the fear that everything would be shut down again before we’d get
anywhere near the stage.
About three weeks
into rehearsals that fear materialized. Katie, being an ER nurse manager, was
very concerned about the rising Covid cases. In August, the cast was sent a
survey asking three questions: whether they were comfortable continuing the
show, whether they were comfortable moving indoors for rehearsals and if the
show were postponed to March/April 2022, would they be available. I answered
mine that I was comfortable, though I suggested getting clear face masks; that
we should wait a little longer to see how the rest of the month played out
before moving indoors; and for the last question I pointed out we could be in
the same situation in March/April 2022 and we could potentially keep endlessly
postponing until Covid was no longer a threat, which could have been years. Two
days after the survey, we got the news that the show was postponed until
spring.
The good news was
that they did get the rights for spring 2022. The bad news was that when they
sent the new dates, they added a fourth weekend to the run and, as with the
first time, Saturday matinees were a possibility. Great. Just great. I could not readily commit to the show that far in advance. I discussed the situation with Jenny, and she dropped me for the time being, but she would be happy to let me rejoin if I was able to.
To make matters
worse, we were short staffed at my work and showed no sign of adding new
employees anytime soon. Then my boss revealed that she was planning a trip at
the same time as the new run of Rent. That’s
when I decided that maybe I should look for a new job. One that let me have
weekends off. And the fact that they were not making any adjustments for the
short staffing situation was certainly making the decision to leave easier.
Time passed. I
moved onto another project, which went down the drain when then Omicron Covid
variant wave hit. But at the end of January, rehearsals resumed. Most of the
original cast remained, but we lost Percy, Lindsay, Fiorella,
 |
| Photo of cast and crew, minus Malik who had left before closing |
A number of
things I originally had the first time around were taken from me and given to
some of the new people. For instance, I lost the role of Paul in “Life Support”
to Michael Lister. I was also originally in “Will I?” and a cop in “On the
Street” and a homeless person in the last reprise of “Christmas Bells,” but
they trimmed down the number of people in those songs, their reason being so
that there would not be too many people on stage all the time. Thankfully, my other
role of The Man, a drug dealer, they allowed me to keep.
For this show, I decided to do something fun with my hair. I decided on having a zig-zag design on the side of my head. Unfortunately, the design was hardly noticeable after two weeks and by the final weekend of the show, it was gone.
 |
| Me as the Man. Notice the design on the side of my head. This was taken during a rehearsal. I actually wore a black hoodie under the leather jacket in performances. |
When rehearsals began, we had to follow the company's Covid guidelines: we had to do them in masks, we had to do a PCR Covid test at least once a week and when the show opened, we’d have to do rapid testing every day when we’d have rehearsal. Good luck getting any rapid tests. Thankfully, this was not a dance heavy show or the mask wearing would have been insufferable. Unfortunately, I had a hard time finding this to be an enjoyable experience. The very real possibility of the show being postponed again made it difficult for me to get excited about getting to do a live show again. My money was on it happening the week before we opened.
The rehearsals
were both in person and on Zoom. Jenny and Katie decided, for Covid related
reasons, that early rehearsals would be done over Zoom, which they called
“parallel play.” How did that work? We would have our speakers on mute while
rehearsing our vocal parts. Truth be told, I’m still torn over whether this was
an ideal format. To be sure there were positive things about it such as saving
on gas and focusing on something that you personally felt the need to work on,
but at the same time, it wasn’t the same as rehearsing with a group together in
the same room.
There were other
things that this company did that I didn't particularly agree with. First, they decided on brush up rehearsals on
the Thursdays during performance weeks, except the final week. I have never
needed one in my life and honestly, if you don’t have it down after several
weeks of rehearsal, then maybe you just shouldn’t be doing live theatre.
Second, the call time was weird. In every company I’ve worked for, the call
time was the time you're supposed to arrive at the
theater. But here, it was the time we started warm-ups, which meant it was
encouraged for you to get there earlier. Third, for our all-day weekend and
tech weekend rehearsals, we were only given a half hour for lunch and not even
two hours into rehearsal. While I thought that was too short, one day I realized
I couldn’t remember the last time I had actually been at an all-day tech rehearsal which meant I had nothing to compare it to. In the past, I usually worked for most of the day and then went to rehearsal as soon as I got off, so I had no idea how
long other companies gave for their lunch breaks. But not only that, they never decided on exactly when lunch would be until about five minutes before we began, which left little, if any time to place an online order.
If you’re not
familiar with Rent, then you should
know that the writer/creator, Jonathan Larson died on the very morning of the
first Off-Broadway performance of the show. As such, Rent went to Broadway exactly as it was then, which may very well
have been incomplete. If he had lived, there definitely would have been tweaks
and fine-tuning while it was in previews on Broadway. In our show, Jenny and
Katie decided to try things not traditionally done.
Let me tell you
some examples. During “One Song Glory” and “Light my Candle” they had Roger’s
dead girlfriend appear onstage. In “Tango: Marueen,” which is usually just Mark
and Joanne, they had Maureen appear onstage dancing with two people. In “La Vie
Boheme,” the number is traditionally done with everyone seated at a long table
facing the audience doing syncopated movement before dancing around stage, but
in ours, we never sat at the long table. We had a certain movement for each
time we sang “La Vie Boheme,” and Katie wanted us to do our own thing with
interacting with each other. At the end of the song, she wanted improvised
dancing (not my strong suit). In “Without You,” it’s usually heavily implied
that Mimi is struggling with relapsing and it’s mainly a solo with her onstage.
In ours, we had it so that she’d wrap an elastic band around her arm and almost
shoot herself up, but then rip it off and throw the needle aside. Also, while
she was singing, we had it scenes that showed the passage of time with Angel’s
health deteriorating.
Good ideas for
not going traditional, but I couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t their idea
originally. Some of the things they did, such as in “Tango: Maureen” and
“Without You” were what happened in the 2005 film.
Our band for this show was only four musicians. Daniel on the keyboard, one man on guitar, one man on drums and one man on bass guitar. Didn’t seem like much, but it worked just fine. Also, apparently, we were legally obligated to play two pre-recorded tracks for “Today 4 U” and “Contact.” Daniel hypothesized that this was because when Rent first opened, it was hard for a Broadway orchestra to recreate the music in those two pieces. And the people who had the rights to the show probably didn’t realize that that was not so much the case now. During tech week, there were a couple problems with the sound guy accidentally playing "Today 4 U" at the wrong time. I worried during the run that it might happen during a performance (fortunately, it never did).
At the sitzprobe, during the notes afterward, Daniel gave
me a quick shout-out for being “rock solid” in my solo during “Happy New Year
B.” It was only two lines, but it was definitely something I needed to hear. I
had been feeling down for a couple days leading up to it and I just needed a
win that week.
The set was a
minimal one. There were four trusses, two downstage, two upstage. Behind the two
upstage ones were two platforms, accessible by climbing up the trusses or by
ladders offstage. All these were carefully and painstakingly built by Jere
Torkelsen, a member of the theater company. The band sat upstage, between/under
the two platforms. Two tables on wheels and something like fifteen blocks were
used for the locations. Attached to the downstage right truss was a pay phone.
Opening night
should have been something that brought tears of joy to my eyes. But it didn’t.
I’ve done shows that brought me joy. I’ve done shows that made me angry,
annoyed or just “meh.” But this was the first time I’ve done a show that made
me incredibly sad. The last time I felt this way was during Victor/Victoria, but that was because of
outside factors and nothing at all to do with the show itself.
To begin, every
rehearsal we had a circle up led by Gary (who played Tom Collins). In these circles we
took deep breaths, get connected, lift each other up, say something about our
lives or something we brought to the show. At first, they were okay, but as time
went on, I realized they were becoming an inconvenience for me. Only when
the clock was inching toward 10:30 and I had about a half hour drive home and I
had to be up at 6 the next morning. Which, until the show was running, was most
mornings. If it weren't for that, I would have had no issue at all.
I thought they’d
end once the show was up and running. But no. We did them pre-show after mic
check, fight call and our warmups, which meant sometimes I didn’t get quiet
time. And then we had to do them immediately after the curtain call, when I
wanted to take my mic and my makeup off. When Jenny decided to do that, it made
me just shut down and walk through the preview performance. Knowing that I
would be held up and not allowed to leave as quickly as possible so I could go
home and get what little sleep I could just made me not care.
Coming back to
opening night, I got in trouble. Jenny and Katie took me aside and told me that
some people in the cast went to them and told them I was too rough backstage,
whether in set changes or getting around to where I needed to be. I spent the
rest of the night wondering when I did it. What really hurt was the thought that
whoever went to them felt that I was too unapproachable to have a word with me
first. It took me back when I did
I pictured the
moment I’d take my first curtain call since the pandemic began a million times.
I thought it would fill me with so much joy. I thought I’d be so overcome I
would cry in sheer joy. But as I stood there, holding hands and bowing, all I
could think was, “I really don’t want to be here.” Because of how I felt, I couldn’t bring
myself to go to the reception in the lobby after the performance. I wouldn’t
inflict my company on the rest of them.
The next day I
posted some things on Facebook about how the previous night hadn’t been great
and a separate post asking my friends if I was too rough or mean. Later that
day, I received a phone call from Jenny and Katie (well, this can’t be good). They said they had heard from mutual
friends that I was not happy in the show (Shit!)
and asked me what was wrong. (Dead silence
from me. I had to do some quick thinking here. What am I gonna say? What am I gonna say? Say something!). After a long, awkward
silence from me, I made some lame excuse that I was just not happy lately; I
couldn’t very well tell them the real reason of what was bothering me because
literally everyone else in the production, cast and crew, liked doing the circle ups and
I would’ve come off looking like an asshole. Then Katie asked if I would like
to leave the show (Well…No Michael, you idiot! No. No. No.
No! I’ve come too far and sacrificed too much to give up now). We ended the
conversation; I immediately deleted those Facebook posts, and I went about the
rest of the weekend. The best I could do was to keep my head down and stay out
of everyone’s way, staying outside when not onstage or about to go on.
Even reading
this, you probably think I’m a killjoy and making a big deal out of nothing. I
must say that I hold no ill feeling toward anyone in the cast or toward Katie
or Jenny for this rough start.
Moving on. The first weekend had packed houses. If not sold out, then pretty close. This was probably the first time I ever did a show where I didn’t have to work on a Saturday (not counting when I got the day off for days with two performances). I’m talking entire day of rest before the show. But it didn’t matter to me. I did not enjoy it at all. In fact, the only performance I cared about was the Saturday show because that’s when my mother was coming. After that, I didn’t care whether I got Covid and missed the rest of the run. Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting anyone else to come see me.
The second
weekend on the other hand, was another matter entirely. After three nights off,
we had our first brush-up rehearsal. I’ve already stated my feelings about
those, but that may have actually been the first rehearsal I thoroughly enjoyed.
I left smiling and thinking “I might like doing this show after all.” The first curtain call of that weekend left me feeling happy in a way I did not feel the first weekend. But even
after that, there were still things that rubbed me the wrong way.
After the second
weekend I began to suspect that I was not that much liked by at least some of my fellow cast
mates. It was just small things that I couldn’t help but notice over time. For
instance, before every show, Trixie (Mimi) would go around to each person in
the cast saying, “Break a leg, got your back.” But what I noticed was that she
also hugged each and every person…except me. She would just say it to me
quickly and breeze past. Whether she didn’t hug other people as well, I don’t
know, but everyone who started the show on my side of the show was hugged. Then nobody ever invited out to
have a drink afterwards or to John’s house to hang out. That was no surprise since that was actually a common occurrence in many shows I did. I finally was in a
position to do so after a show since I didn’t have to work the next morning,
and I didn’t get invited. By the closing performance I took it upon myself to
hug people.
There were good
moments in the show that never ceased to amaze me. First, one of my favorite
parts of the show was Allie’s performance as the blanket person and how it made
me eat my words. She was actually a replacement since the original person ended up leaving and I must admit I had my doubts. She had been with the show since
the very beginning, and she always struck me as a quiet person and was only five
foot four-ish. But over time, she really grew and let out the anger that the
part required. By the time of the run, she started her lines “Who the FUCK do
you think you are-” and I could feel it offstage. Now I think of it, it wasn’t
that surprising because she was a tough one. On the day of our last performance, she
didn’t get to the theater until a half hour before the show started, but that’s
because she was doing a triathlon in the morning. Which meant being up before
six after doing a show the night before, doing the triathlon and then coming to
do another show. She came in fourth place in her age group and 22nd
place overall female; we were all so proud of her.
We almost lost
Shayla, the original Mimi and now Maureen. After the show was postponed, she
dropped out of the show because she had planned to go back to
Stephen, who
played Angel, had the personality required to embody Angel. Onstage or off, he
was Angel personified, just the sweetest guy. And he looked so young! All of us
thought he was probably in his mid-twenties at most. But his birthday took
place on one of the Sunday shows and that’s when we found out he was in his
late 30s….what?! The joke among us was that he was a vampire. And simply put,
he was irreplaceable. If he got sick and couldn’t go on, not one man in the
cast could have done what he did. Or at least, not as well.
In “Seasons of
Love,” there are two solos, while the rest of the song is the entire cast
singing together. The two soloists were Anna and Malik, later replaced by Sleiman. In
that song I not only focused on my notes, but each night, I really practiced my
diction. How could I not with these lyrics,
In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter and
strife.
During the two
solos, the rest of the cast just sang “Ooh,” but it wasn’t until the second
performance that I actually heard Anna’s solo. I had been so focused in hitting
the right notes that I realized I never heard her. And I was the one standing
on the end of the line of people, right next to the speaker! But on this night, I opted to hold
back a little. And what a voice she had! Especially with that last high note.
Beautiful.
In tradition Rent fashion, and as per Jonathan Larson’s wishes, some of the names of those
in “Life Support” were changed to those who people in the show personally knew
who were living with HIV. In our case, the names Steve, Gordon, Ali, and Paul
were replaced with Jim, Howard, Lomax and John, respectively. During one of our
circles, the person who knew the afflicted individual would tell us all about
him/her. For John, Jenny’s friend, we actually got to hear from him personally tell his story, over Zoom. He was old enough to have lived when the AIDS
epidemic began. I won’t put all the details of his story on here, but it was truly a moving
moment to hear all about it and the trials and challenges he faced, not
just living with this disease, but also learning to live and love as a gay man.
What he really stressed was the importance of having a community. Sadly, he was
unable to make it to the show.
My big moment in
the show as The Man was during “Christmas Bells.” About halfway through the
song, I’d come onstage, flash out two little bags of white stuff (meant to be
cocaine, but in actuality was probably sugar), walk to the center, stand there
until my line “Hey lover boy, cutie pie, you steal my client, you die,” shove Nelson, who played Roger, get shoved back, then climb the downstage right truss. Sometimes the
baggies slipped out of my fingers, once accidentally knocked out by Jesse when
his head bumped my hand, but I always could see from the truss where they landed.
After climbing up the truss, I had to improvise. I mostly just stayed on the
truss, leering at Mimi, then climb down and move stage left for the end of the
song. Eventually, I came up with the idea of getting down, then searching the
pay phone for coins. That worked pretty well, until John started stealing it
and doing that before me.
In the first
weekend there were a few empty seats, but from the second weekend onward, the
houses were packed full. By the final weekend we were completely sold out. For
the second half of the run, the audiences were very responsive, cheering after
the songs, clapping along during “Seasons of Love,” and, in one instance, one
person standing in the back, swaying her arms back and forth during that song.
Very often we got a standing ovation. It’s hard to say which weekend was the
best one.
After the Friday
performance of the third weekend, Malik left the show. He had been in
discussions with Jenny and Katie to do the show in the Fall, but he wasn’t sure
because he was to chaperone a student trip to
On the day of
Malik’s last show, it was unbearably hot in the theater. Apparently, someone
didn’t turn on the air conditioner that night. At first, I wondered if it was
just me, but by the end of “Christmas Bells,” we were all sweating and nearly
soaked. And we still had to do “La Vie Boheme” before getting to go outside in
the cool night air! It wasn't just that night; some nights did indeed feel hotter than others after those two numbers. On some
nights, during “La Vie Boheme,” I could feel a bead of sweat tricking down my
face and other nights, nothing.
On the Sunday
during the third weekend, around halfway through “La Vie Boheme,” one of the
wheels of the table onstage came off. It was during the spoken part of the song
and during this, everyone mentioned would get up on the table, but all of us
could see it wobbling. John tried his best to hold it down and steady. I could
do nothing until Stephen got on the table and out of my way. When Stephen’s
turn on the table came,
By the end of the
third weekend, the rest of the run was completely sold out. The final weekend
marked the first time my mother came to see a show of mine for a second time.
In the past she and my dad had come to see back-to-back free performances of
college shows I had done, but I mean this was the first full length
community/professional show that she had come to more than once. She had a little trouble
getting a ticket since the run had sold out, but there were a couple
cancellations and as soon as I found out on the Facebook group, I pounced and
secured one for her.
The cast decided
to have a secret Santa gift exchange. I may be wrong, but I think it was
originally Shayla’s idea. The person who got me was Arup (Benny) and he gave me
a cookbook, since there had been a few occasions where I baked some things,
including a key lime pie, and during one rehearsal for the first time around, I
had made fried rice. The person who I got was Amy and I gave her a box with
butterflies on it and in the box, some snacks for her take on her flight to
On the last day,
we all were very mistaken as to how long the strike would take. Since the set was
simple, we thought it would be an hour, two hours tops. It took well over three. But
as soon as we were done, most of us went off to John’s house for the party. I
couldn’t stay all night though, since I had to be up at six in the morning, but
it was a good time, especially when Jake read aloud a little piece Shayla wrote
about Mark and Maureen’s relationship. It was a hoot!
I’m glad that I
finally got to do a theatre show after waiting over two years, even if this show
took longer than it should have. In spite of the rough start at the run for me, it actually did end being a pleasant experience. However, it would not be an experience I'd look back on with fondness. I regret that I couldn’t more thoroughly enjoy
it because of the threat of it being postponed or a performance cancelled if someone
got Covid. After this show I wondered whether it was worth it to continue doing
live performing anymore if that was how it was going to be from now on.
