{"id":5876,"date":"2021-02-02T21:26:17","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T05:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5876"},"modified":"2021-02-02T21:26:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T05:26:17","slug":"back-to-backstage-victoria-bc-02-02-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5876","title":{"rendered":"Back to Backstage \u2013 Victoria, BC \u2013 [02\/02\/2021]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"There’s a special kind of aura ’round a Show Person….
\n<\/em>
\nEleven 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<\/em> as part of a fundraiser for one of the local theatre companies. I was playing Trixie, the Usherette who opens and closes the production\u2026it was \u2013 at that time \u2013 the second major lead I had ever had and I was insanely proud of it.<\/p>\n

I still remember walking down the aisle of the rehearsal theatre, looking the director \u2013 whom I knew well by then and considered a friend \u2013 in the eye and saying<\/p>\n

I must really love you guys\u2026.I just turned\u00a0 down Venice.<\/em><\/p>\n

You see, the job offer for my intitial position with the cruise line had been for launching the company\u2019s newest ship out of Venice. The problem was they had wanted to send me out that week<\/em>, and that was my show\u2019s tech week. And I had a lead. They were depending on me. So I said I was sorry, that I couldn\u2019t do that to my cast , and they (thankfully) said okay, and they put me on a run to Alaska instead.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

But one thing I didn\u2019t count on, was when the curtain dropped on our last performance\u2026it was going to be the last curtain I watched drop from stage-side in a long\u2026long time.<\/p>\n

Eleven years long.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

And then the world shut down.<\/p>\n

And suddenly\u2026suddenly I was home!<\/p>\n

I was home and there was nothing to audition for!<\/p>\n

And then\u2026.there was. This little notice popped up on my social media, advetising casting for a community theatre *virtual* production of a newly written drama\u2026and lo and behold there were three parts in my age range; and I was home for all the dates.<\/p>\n

And\u2026<\/p>\n

I got the part.<\/p>\n

Not just a part. The lead part.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a big show, it\u2019s a tiny little local \u201czoom\u201d virtual show that will only run for one night. We\u2019ll have six rehearsals and because it\u2019s virtual we won\u2019t even be able to hear our audience\u2026<\/p>\n

But it is a *show*\u2026for the first time in over a decade I have a *show*\u2026<\/p>\n

And I wish I could explain \u2026that I could find the right words to explain\u2026just how much more \u201cme\u201d that makes me feel\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like\u2026coming home after a very very long cold day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[111,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-the-times-of-covid","category-performances"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-1wM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5877,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5876\/revisions\/5877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}