Opening Night!!!! Yikes!!!!! I always get the jitters....not that being nervous isn't what I do best. I am compulsive about making sure that everything is just right. Last two nights the PRESS has been there, I have been gluing and painting and tweaking and taping, to insure that the picture I saw in my mind lands on the stage at Genesee Community College. What a week!!!! I am so proud of this show...it really does shine!!!
That is where the problem of doing plays or musicals lies. It depends on how you look at things. Theater is one of the few art forms that can not be replicated. I mean, sure we make tapes of certain nights and look at them again...but the alive feeling is what it takes to make the show.....well.... the show. That only happens once, when the audience member is impacted the first time...it never happens again. Once played....always lost. That is the nature of the beast as it stands. It also is the beauty of LIVE theater. Each and every performance is its own separate piece of art, subtly being changed each time to be slightly different then before.......
When I start to design theater productions I look at it all as one big painting. What does each and everything look like in a certain way on stage. What type of actor will fill this role or what color the drinking glass should be. I am that centered and compulsive... trust me. I see the whole thing as a snapshot in the minds of those that will be sitting in the seats in the theater. If I was a good painter, I probably would paint my scenes...instead I imagine them.... I can only draw stick figures..... I tend to land on color a lot....Color sets the mood and allows the show to exist in a certain frame of mind. It either soothes or inflames....or it adds a sense of nostalgia.
So...tonight opening night....All the last minute preparations.....all the work that has yet to be done and all the tickets left to be sold..... Opening night of "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" at Genesee Community College - 7:30PM. As I have said many, many times....this is a dream come true for me.... I am lucky that way. I have many dreams about shows and performing......playing a certain character or sharing a favorite play or musical. In Batavia, this community, I get the support to make those dreams come to life.... How indeed fortunate I am. Please come see our show.
