It is March 27th, 2020. March 27th is a day that is celebrated by many as World Theatre Day. 2020 is also being celebrated as the Year of the Stage Manager. Both celebrations are close to my heart, and I am so honored to be able to do so by looking back at all the theatre I have done in my life. It started way back when I was in the 4th grade as a little kid with a green wig who never actually learned his lines because I just sat behind cardboard for most of the time my character was talking. My most recent shows being Assistant Director for Frozen, Jr having just finished the first week of tech and having just done our first run thru and Stage Manager for Little Women that was 5 weeks into rehearsals when the theatre postponed it. Everything in between have been show after show of me learning to love this amazing art. I've worked backstage at a regional theatre with people who've been on Broadway, I've performed 6 musicals in a makeshift theatre that is in a lecture hall, I've stage managed a show in the round where maybe 100 people came to see the show, I've stage managed a show that had 800 people in the audience 6 times a day, I've run rehearsals where petting dogs and watching over kids has been a part of my unofficial duties, I've been in the ensemble, I've been a small named character, I've been a title character, and I've played my dream role. I've worked with people aged 4 to people in their 70s. I've learned something from every show and from every person I've met. I've laughed in a theatre, I've cried in a theatre, I've loved in a theatre, I've grown up in the theatre, I've learned about the human soul in the theatre.
This year, World Theatre Day is very, VERY different. In this country there is no theatre happening today. There are no openings, there are no people getting to the theatre early just to be in each other's company, there are no people going on dates to watch a show, there are people escaping their lives for 3 hours to watch other people entertain them, there are no little kids seeing a show for the first time and falling in love with theatre, there are no older folks being transported back to when they were kids while reminiscing about seeing a show for the first time, there are no curtain calls.
This time in the world is hard for everyone, and I know that it might seem superficial of me to think that something like theatre not happening because of a pandemic is so serious. But for many people, especially many of the people that I know and love, theatre is their life. Theatre is the way they escape to a world that isn't their own to play people they aren't. Theatre is some people's livelihoods and for others it's their ultimate dreams. There's a lot of theatre people who thrive on rehearsals and performances because it is their time to be around people that have similar interests and the only time in the day they get hugs and shown love, and being without it for the unforeseeable future is tearing them up inside. But there is one thing that all the theatre people I know all agree on, that we will be back. We will get back together and perform again. We will come out of this thing stronger than ever because we have each other to lean on.
There is like nothing else out there in the world like theatre. We become other people in other worlds to make people laugh, cry, and think. We, on purpose, spend months getting a show ready and take on the world's #1 fear and put our trust in the hands of people we have just met weeks ago so others can enjoy it. We are crazy, but we love it and we love each other.
Actors, please continue to put performances on your social media. Theatres, continue to come up with creative ways to connect your community. Patrons, please keep getting hungry to seeing theatre for when we are clear to do so again. World, please, I beg of you, get better so that we can get back to our normal, and our loves.
Happy World Theatre Day
Until next time...