Closings

So, I'm working on this show, backstage, and they're closing today. A wonderful production of You Can't Take It With You here at Antaeus. I say "they're" closing, not "we're" closing, because I joined the show near the end of the run, and I'm not one of the actors in the show. However, I do play a "small but vital role" as the wielder of the props, but it's just such a different experience. And, I'm enjoying watching all these folks, that started working on this play many, many weeks ago, enjoy each other. They're laughing and crying, and in this wonderful place of celebration as they send this one off to the Theatre Gods. And it's really lovely to be on the outside, to actually get to witness this experience, instead of being inside all the feelings that come up when you have to say "good-bye" to a play that you've loved performing in. I thought it was going to be uncomfortable, not being "in the midst", but I'm realizing what a gift it is, to see, from an objective point of view, how remarkable this life in the theatre really is. This life that continually blooms and dies, then blooms again in a different way and thus dies again in a different way, over and over again. This life, that despite the odds and the costs, continues to thrive. It is indeed a mystery.