Quilters wrap

Wow. I can't believe it's over. We had our last show Sunday and it was a difficult and amazing experience. I think it was our best show ever. We all got a little emotional near the end of it, which was actually appropriate because the end is rather bittersweet anyway.

I initially got involved in theatre again because I don't have a lot of local friends who are not connected to work or church. Even the people I meet through professional organizations are more work friends than "hanging out" friends. One thing I wanted to do was find some friends to keep in touch with, people to care about. Fuddy Meers gave me the chance to get to know Cathy. We have a great email friendship and serve on a committee on the board so we are staying in touch that way. I've kept in touch with Tim and Mark and Anastasia, which is wonderful because they are all great people. With Hamlet and Misery, I didn't really make new friends because I worked tech all by myself, so there wasn't a lot of interaction with everyone else. But this show.. it pretty much demands that the cast bond with each other during the rehearsal process. If there isn't a bond, the show feels wrong. We all totally bonded and by the end, when we sang about "sisters" we all really felt like family. We depended on each other, we trusted each other, and most of all, we cared about each other - and I think that will last. Dallas, Nicole, Lesley, Donna, Carolyn, Pat, Shannon, Megan, and Maribeth are all incredible people and I hope we all stay friends. It's hard to find words to describe how much I loved getting to know each cast and crew member.

Of course, even though I've never been in a show with Brenda, we've worked closely together since she is the Production Manager and I'm the Publicity Chair, so we've become friends too, which is great. Also Hilary, who I've worked with several times. Those are two awesome women!

Several of us are going to see a show in Mobile this weekend - Richard II. Hilary is stage managing the show and the guy who directed Hamlet is directing it, so it should be incredible.

That's one reason I love working with the theatre so much. I never would have met any of these incredible individuals if I had never auditioned for that first play.

But back to Quilters, it was a heck of a run and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel like it really helped me as an actress and a singer. It made me step out of my comfort zone and really feel the part in a way that I've never had to do before. It was a challenge, playing all those different roles and switching between them so quickly. I think the hardest part of it was going from complete tragedy to the joy of being a child in a matter of seconds. I really had a hard time with that, but I think in the end, I managed. I'll be posting some video clips from our dress rehearsal later, just in case some family and/or friends didn't get to see it and want a little taste. We didn't video the actual performances out of respect for the copyright, but we did video that last dress rehearsal so that we could see how we looked on stage and adjust things that needed to be adjusted. It was a great learning tool for me - and now I have a video keepsake of this amazing experience! The clips are a little rough, since they are of the dress rehearsal, but they are a good representation of how the show looked and sounded.

So tonight was my first night without rehearsal (well, last night, but we had a hurricane to deal with) and I'm enjoying the rest, but I really miss everyone. That's always the way it is. I did have a busy night, though. I'm working on rearranging things in my house and am trying to finish a knitting project. Tomorrow I'm going to Michael's to get a big frame for my play poster and other keepsakes. I always do a neat thing with all my stuff from a show. I'll post a picture when it's finished.