October 19, 2004
On the closing of another show and a new week beginning
Another show down. Two practicums left to do (or one, theoretically, if I can stage manage something either this or next year.)
It was a fantastic closing week, full of good times with cast and crew. Our audiences were for the most part great - spanning the spectrum from cell phones ringing at all points, to the one guy who, during the final light cues, said quite loudly to himself but loudly enough that the actors could hear, "Nice. NICE. NICE!"
The set was struck in record time, it seemed. 2 hours after it began, the apartment was gone, reduced to a pile of two-by-fours, hundreds of screws and some plywood.
It occurred to me (as it seems to after every show) that theatre is really weird. You go into a production knowing that it's going to close. But for the 2, 4, 8, 16 weeks, whatever, you're working on it, you're making it as permanant as possible. I knew that 15 minutes after the last performance of "Art" was over that the set was going to be struck, and in the case of "Art," not even the stage would be left where the production had taken place.
In my senior year of high school, I took a drama course as an elective. One of the first things we learned - perhaps it was even on the first page of the text - was that the art of theatre was "ephemeral." I don't think I'd ever heard that word before. Part of working in theatre these last years has meant coming to terms with that idea. It's kind of good practice too, in terms of my life imitating art, in that one quickly realizes that life does go on beyond the individual productions we find ourselves in through the years.
I get to be bored for the next couple of weeks. "The Visit" opens (I think...) 3 weeks from tomorrow. I have no association with it. I'm a bit nervous - it was really fantastic being engaged so completely at school again. "Art" was something to look forward to after classes were over. 90% of the core of the first-year class seems to be involved in Visit too, so it's going to test the bonds I feel that I formed over "Art." I'm gonna miss the almost-nightly drinks after shows and rehearsal, and the constant stream of in-jokes that seemed to permeate every rehearsal.
But yeah, life goes on. The next production is right around the corner.
Right now I just need to get through the Shakespeare project that's due Thursday (which is completely on track and ahead of schedule.) I want to go home this weekend, but I don't think it's gonna happen because of a scene I have due next Monday. I want to see about a job this week, although I'm not entirely optimistic about it.
To finish, I leave with another quote, that has piqued my interest in the past couple of days, from a play we're looking at in class:
"Writing is acting is directing is living your life...I see no difference between writing a play and living my life. The same thing that make a moment in my life succeed, combust, move, these same things make a moment in my playwriting have life. And when I move in my writing, I have moved in my life. There is no illusion. It is all the same thing. Acting is the same as playwriting." - John Patrick Shanley, Author's note to "the dreamer examines his pillow"