There’s a special kind of aura ’round a Show Person….
Eleven years ago I this April I got a phone call from the hiring director for a major cruise line. At the time I was in the middle of doing a semi-professional production of The Rocky Horror Show as part of a fundraiser for one of the local theatre companies. I was playing Trixie, the Usherette who opens and closes the production…it was – at that time – the second major lead I had ever had and I was insanely proud of it.
I still remember walking down the aisle of the rehearsal theatre, looking the director – whom I knew well by then and considered a friend – in the eye and saying
I must really love you guys….I just turned down Venice.
You see, the job offer for my intitial position with the cruise line had been for launching the company’s newest ship out of Venice. The problem was they had wanted to send me out that week, and that was my show’s tech week. And I had a lead. They were depending on me. So I said I was sorry, that I couldn’t do that to my cast , and they (thankfully) said okay, and they put me on a run to Alaska instead.
I remember only flashes of that show now. It was one of the best productions I ever did, certainly one of the most fun. But like all shows, the memories dull around the edges a bit with time. At one point I knew every single cast members’ name and birthday, now I recongize only a few of their faces. We were very close knit at the time though and man did I ever love that part.
But one thing I didn’t count on, was when the curtain dropped on our last performance…it was going to be the last curtain I watched drop from stage-side in a long…long time.
Eleven years long.
When I first started working on ships they had told me that they would be glad to work around and shows I was cast in. Looking back I should have known better. You can’t take two unpredictable lifestyles and smash them into one. I was never home for audition season, and even if I was, I would never be home for the run dates. Eventually I simply put away my character shoes and ballet slippers and tried my best not to think about it too much.
And then the world shut down.
And suddenly…suddenly I was home!
I was home and there was nothing to audition for!
And then….there was. This little notice popped up on my social media, advetising casting for a community theatre *virtual* production of a newly written drama…and lo and behold there were three parts in my age range; and I was home for all the dates.
And…
I got the part.
Not just a part. The lead part.
It’s not a big show, it’s a tiny little local “zoom” virtual show that will only run for one night. We’ll have six rehearsals and because it’s virtual we won’t even be able to hear our audience…
But it is a *show*…for the first time in over a decade I have a *show*…
And I wish I could explain …that I could find the right words to explain…just how much more “me” that makes me feel…
It’s like…coming home after a very very long cold day.