And to our Zombie Prom.
With tonight being closing night, I suppose this would be an excellent time to write up everything that's happened in the past few weeks, since I've been too busy/knackered/dead to even contemplate school work, let alone blog posts.
We've had a fantastic run of the show, so far. It's been hectic, and I can't say my body is thanking me for pushing it so hard this week, but the energy resulting from all the extra effort on everyone's part is just amazing. Matinee-Evening Thursday, Matinee-Evening Friday, with one final show tonight, and I cannot wait.
But there is, of course, one enormous personal tragedy with the final closing of the curtain at 9:30ish this evening. Knowing that, as of then, I will never, ever again be on that stage again as a performer.
I honestly cannot imagine how I'm going to react to tonight's closing speeches/cast party.
I
still can't fathom that my life as an Aldershot theatre kid is coming
to an end. I mean, the shows have been my life for the better part of
six years, and I owe a huge part of my soul to the program.
I've
worked both onstage and behind the scenes for three years, and at least
10 productions, whether they're school-wide or just for class. And
it... it just strikes me that even though I'm going to university to study Theatre, this is where I really had my start. And I'm so thankful that I decided to audition for Pirates of Penzance all those years ago, and then carry on auditioning subsequently. I really will miss it. God, I will.
Sephton's making two speeches this evening, one before the show, to just talk to everyone about how well everybody's done, and how proud we should be of ourselves, and one after, to tell the audience how awesome everyone is, how hard they've worked, how devoted each and every actor, from the chorus to the leads was, and hopefully he can put into words what I'd like to. I have never had this much fun working on a show, and even though being AD/Co-SM/Props Coordinator/Senior Cast Member/Director's Reminder-er of Common Sense, on top of having to learn a new role in less than two weeks, I've enjoyed every single minute of it. There may have been times that I worked myself into a bit of a frenzy over things, but this is the best way I can think of to finish my time as an A-shot Theatre kid (Hehe, I should start a brand with that, I really should. We could get t-shirts and everything).
I said last night in my little speech to the cast, as a sort of pep talk, that if I "didn't stop talking soon, I was going to start rambling and possibly crying", and at this point, it really looks like that might happen tonight. I can't put into words how I'm feeling right now or how tight my throat and chest are, because of the excitement and the sadness of it all, but I guess I'll have to make the most of tonight, and just give 'er. I know that everybody's going to be devastated once this is all over; you just can't break the kind of bond that a cast with this level of energy has and not expect everyone to be torn up about it.
Speaking of the cast: Every single one of them has just been incredible, with all of the work they've put into
learning their parts, and just being a totally fun, totally stellar,
totally talented group of people to watch grow and expand as actors and
actresses. And stage crew members, of course! Darlings, if any of you
read this, please know that these words cannot possibly express the amount of love, pride and honour that I've had working with each and every single one of you. I hope you all audition for the shows in years to come, and I get to see most, if not all of your faces when I come back for visits.
I think I've probably exhausted all the coherent thoughts in my head right now (come to think of it, this probably isn't very coherent anyway!), so I think I'll have a quick rest, and get myself ready for this evening. It's gonna be a long one, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
Pages completed: 3 093/16 818
