Whew! Tonight is the beginning of our run of "Gypsy" at the Players Barn. So many emotions..!! I really should be trying to take a nap - slept like crap last night - but I am too wired.
Let's sort some of this out, shall we?
Okay...first fear - FREEZING ON STAGE. It is a weird thing that happens to many people. You walk out on stage and, suddenly, there is Mr. Naysayer in your head... "Wow, I wonder if my dress is buttoned, am I standing up straight, how does my face look, do I feel centered, oops better listen to that line, I'm next..."
SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have never frozen onstage. True, that voice speaks to me but I will do my very best to not listen. With 14 scenes, 9 songs, 10 costumes changes (2 in under 30 seconds, a dog, children, food on stage.... there is way too much stimulus. Concentrate. 'Nuff said.
We lost a little girl this week to cancer. She performed in several of the youth theatre shows and summer theatre camps. Haley was a bright star and given a short span here on earth. She used up every moment of it and was an inspiration to her family, her friends and those who knew her. She loved theatre and singing and I need to remember that as I have the opportunity to go out there tonight. Haley can't so I will sing and act in her honor and in her memory.
Then there are my parents who will be watching from the celestial balcony tonight. They would have burst with pride at all that I have achieved in this production and I cannot let them down. They will be in attendance and, again, I sing and dance in their honor and in their memory.
This is a great chance to bring to life an amazing story. The real folks depicted in this wild tale are gone now and they too need to be honored in the age old tradition of "the show must go on!"
And lastly, this is theatre. Theatre must be for the audience; to lift, to inspire, to amuse, to shock and to entertain. The actors will have an amazing time of it but we need to bring it so that our audience can savor the "in the moment" feeling too. The Arts stop us, dead in our tracks, and gets in our face. This is why music, dance and theatre is essential to life. It lifts us up and out of our lives, out of our heads, out of ourselves and MAKES us look around!!
And we need to stop, once in awhile, and look around, right?
This is a roller coaster of a show. It makes us feel. It makes us think. It is art.
I am humbled to be a part of it.
So, with the spirit of my English grandmother, my mother and father, Haley and Rose Hovick herself, I intend to walk out on that stage tonight and SHINE!
On with the show!
