Why I do theater

Wow. Our show is over. 22 Shows is 3 weeks.

The show was so popular that it sold out, so they asked us if we could all do an additional show on Thursday night, which we did.

It was really awesome to get to know the other 7 people in the cast.

For the past four weeks we get there around 9 and start to do our makeup, hair, get out mics on and get in costume and warm up. A lot of mornings I was tired, or stressed, or really didn’t want to do JUST ONE MORE show. But once I got there, everyone was laughing, singing to whatever music we had on that day, and just having fun as we got ready. I mentioned to Ryan how much fun we were having, and he said, “this is the payoff. You did the 6 weeks of rehearsals and now you get to reap the pay off.”

Yep.

And what great people. Our director is in his 80’s. He’s a wonderful man.
We have a 57 year old dynamo with tons of energy, and she was also our choreographer.
We have a retired cop, now stay at home dad,
A 19 year old chemical biology student (something super smart like that)
A couple of 28 year olds who love theater and have been doing it for years,
A mom of 3 who only did her first play last fall,
Our Pinkalicious, who is most often a behind the scenes gal, directing and stage managing so many shows, but she was AWESOME and full of energy in this role,
And me.

Everyone was so nice. We talked about relationships, theater, husbands, boyfriends, dating, kids, makeup, music, underwear, school… everything. This past week I came on Thursday and had just learned of a young man’s death in our stake, and I was very sad. But doing a show forces you to leave your sadness at the door. There is no time for sadness in a busy, high energy show like this. I felt love and support from these people.

In a small show like this, you get a chance to sing and dance (at the same time) even if that’s not your forte. Often, n big shows, I don’t get to dance at all because it’s obvious that I’m not a dancer. I LOVED having the chance to learn choreography and dance. No, I’m not the best, but I CAN do it, and it’s fun.

Yes, it was a ton of work. Each show took about 3 hours out of my day, with driving to Orem, getting ready, doing the show, changing, and then driving home. On 7 of those days, we did the show twice, so that was about 6 hours. But I LOVED doing it. Yes, my house is a mess, and I was quite exhausted.

But it’s worth it to me.

Now the show is over and I have to go on with my regular life. I have a few sub jobs lined up already and I will continue with my chimes choir. I still have Bells, and we are entering a really busy season. I have enough to do, that I’m glad I won’t have to give up 3 or 6 hours of my day tomorrow. But a part of me is sad that I won’t get to see these friends every day. I hope to be able to do another show with each of them, and hope we keep in touch. Dr. Seuss said, ‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.’ I will always smile when I think of this show.