If there is anything more lovely than the feeling you get
when someone *gets* you, I don’t know what it is. Finding multiple people that
do is nigh unto a miracle. I've had several experiences like this over the last few weeks, but the ones I'm writing about today are the theatrical ones.
The production of The Importance of Being Earnest that I was
in closed on Saturday. I played Cecily Cardew, and it was one of the most
delightful theatrical experiences I’ve ever had. Oscar Wilde’s words are
sparkling, the corset and costume made me feel “excessively pretty”, and it is
an intoxicating feeling to hear laughter after your lines. But more than any of
these, the cast is what made the show spectacular. I have seen almost all of
these people in multiple productions, but never worked with them, with one
exception. I was in Hello, Dolly! with Bryan, but had only interacted with
Jeff, JoAnn, Andria, Jorden, and Connie from the perspective of
audience-to-performer. I saw Heather in a stunning production of Company, but
the others I had seen not at all.
Bonding with these talented and hilarious people over the
last three months has made me so happy. I love that feeling of connection and
chemistry from running a scene so many times you can do it in your sleep. (I am
the person who will insist on making show jokes the entire run and afterwards as
well. These phrases of dialogue have permanently entered my vocabulary.)
Small, tight casts are literally like family. There were
only nine of us, which is smaller than my actual family. This was a cast in
which I had a deep connection with any member; something that goes beyond the
level of being in a show together. I know them and they know me. They put up
with my crazy, and I love them for it.
Over the course of rehearsing and performing this show I
have obsessed about Comic Con, a boy, Leonard Nimoy, going out with the boy,
Into the Woods, going out with the boy again, my obsession with all things
British, and the boy a few more times. They really have been saints for
listening to my vent my emotions while pacing endless circles around the stage,
the green room, the dressing room.
(Pacing IS my emotion, and almost
involuntary.)
I feel so much and fail so spectacularly at putting emotion
into words. I could talk about this show, this cast, this experience for hours. In the end it’s all about love.
Like Cecily, I feel very happy.
