Maybe...

Maybe, just maybe I do like this whole acting thing. Don't get too excited I don't like it enough to leave my place in the booth, but I did have a lot of fun tonight and am really starting to look forward to our opening night tomorrow. Everything kind of fell into place today. I can see now from the actor's point of view how sometimes it really does seem like the miracle of live theatre will never happen. When I walked in to the theatre tonight we still had a lot to finish. It was significantly farther along than when I left the night before thanks to several hard working TU peeps who stayed into the wee hours of the night working. But there was still quite a bit to do tonight. We started over an hour later than we intended and only had one audience member, but it went well and we are absolutely ready for tomorrow night.

I'm having a bit of a hard time drawing the line between being an actor and being the production manager. At one point in the couple hours before we started the show, Andrew, the director, looked at me as I was helping him hang, cable and focus the last couple lights and said "You don't have to do this, you're an actor." Without even thinking I replied, "No, I'm a production manager." Where else would I be, I can't just sit there and watch other people work on technical things. I find myself worrying about things during the show and have to remind myself to let it go, to enjoy the experience of being on the stage and not in a room above it. I've learned a lot from it. I am a firm believer that every actor should at least once in their acting life stage manage a show, now I'm starting to believe that every stage manager should at least once in their tech career act on a stage. Will I ever return to it -- I can't say yet, for now I'll enjoy the opportunity, the people, and the magic of being part of the performance!