Opening Night

Tonight was opening night of the play at the Guthrie. It went great. We had already had about five preview performances, so we'd already established a kind of routine for our performances. It ran as smoothly as could be. Then we had our opening night party. There were lots of people there: cast crew, quite a few audience members who got some party tickets. For a good portion of the time, it was difficult for me to enjoy the social atmosphere. There was one room with food, one with the bar, and one with dancing. The dancing room was fairly sparse for most of the night, and I was able to avoid being enticed onto the floor, for the most part. Otherwise, I just mingled with people. It took a bit for the drinks to kick in, but eventually I was able to relax. Relative to my usual particular stiffness. I met several new faces and I socialized with other members of the cast. It was fun.

One experience in particular, toward the end of the night, was especially significant to me. I got to talking with Brian, the Pope in our show. He's kind of a big deal in the theatre world. Anyway, we got to talking about God and about life, when he asked me about my own life. At one point in our conversation he said to me, "you seem to radiate goodness. I saw it from the first moment I met you." I don't know how that's possible, having intimate knowledge of my own capacity and tendency toward being a big jerk. My own self-deprecation notwithstanding, the compliment touched me greatly. We talked more about life, my dreams, his experience, and it was really great. I remembered tonight one more reason I love the theatre. For some reason, I have the most interesting conversations about spiritual things when I'm involved in the acting biz. It was true in high school. I didn't expect it when I started but it appears to be true now.

Other good theatre-related news: no more rehearsals. Only performances from here on in. Lots and lots of them, Almost every night ('cept Mondays) and several matinees, until we close on the 17th of December. So I'll still be busy, but there shouldn't be any more ten or twelve hour days at the Guthrie.

A lot of other things are on my mind, but I'm not in a state to process it all right now, most of it being related to the previously mentioned conversation with Brian, among other conversations of the night.