Being There

Last night I went to the opening night performance of a show. I made time and went to see the show because a friend of mine had a large role. I haven't been there for her as much as I should have been and haven't been able to see any of her shows in over a year. I'm beyond happy that I went. We had a chance to talk, and I got to catch up on her life and her kids, and she told me about the problems they had during tech week. It still amazes me that people actually miss me. Miss me just being there, not miss me because of something that I do for them, but sincerely just having me around. I could see that last night, in the moment and made a mental note of it. I didn't realize how much I had missed her until last night. Seeing how well she's doing and how happy she is was soothing, and I hadn't realized that I need that too. So if nothing else had happened last night, that alone was worth so very much.

In addition to seeing that particular friend, I also ran into several people I haven't seen in a while. Several people were friends and former castmates from the theatre, a few were friends or classmates from highschool and college that I've seen around the theatre scene. One friend in particular I had classes with my freshman and sophmore years of highschool and hadn't seen since a chance meeting at a touring performance of "Evita" that we both happened to attend a couple of years later. He was crewing the show last night and we got to talk and catch up at the Opening Night Party. It's a little bit fun and a little bit odd when we realized that it had been over 15 years since we'd seen each other.

The show itself was good and I got to see actors I hadn't seen before which is always good, and new performances from actors I have which is even better. I always learn something from every show, whether it's an observation made in the script, or a choice made in acting, or a set, costume, lighting or sound design choice. Whether it's a lesson of what to do or not to do, I always learn something. I learned several things from the show last night, but the most important lesson I learned was at the party.