We close A Christmas Carol today with a mighty two-show day. It's going to be a bittersweet one. I woke up early boiled eggs,  which cracked in the water,  and burnt my last english muffin. There goes my stellar food management for this gig. But I couldn't let the day pass without reflecting on how amazing this has all been and what this gig in particular means to me. What this company of people means to me. This is probably the closest thing I may get to working with a company of actors. Acting companies seem to be rare and far between these days. The entire equity company came back this year and for good reason. A simple one really. It was a pleasure to do it. 

I love the photo coming up, it says everything about this company. Everyone's all in. From our fearless lead actor to the students and their teacher all sitting on the floor listening to our stage manager. All in. . . let's make a show. 

We're Scaling a Mountain Here

I once worked with a director who would every so often remind the company, "We're scaling a mountain here folks." When he said this it meant to me have faith, take care of each other, don't be a dick and keep putting one foot in front of the other cause we have lots of steps to go here. This company for me embodies the understanding of what scaling a production mountain looks like. Even though we have scaled this mountain before, we know what the pathways look like, it's still a freaking mountain. This cast has shown up with grace, humor, professionalism, joy and love every single day of this process. People have been willing to play and try new things and ultimately do the thing that we are meant to do. Make an audience feel something every performance. Proud to get to play among you guys.

This does not come without leadership. Rachel Shapiro Alderman is a brilliant director. She is keenly aware of what this story is and why it needs to be told, especially now. She guided this company, helped us deepen relationships, gave it all structure and shape and kept this thing at a tight two hours. The fact that this was all done with grace and humor makes her a force to reckon with. I am grateful that I get to be a member of her company of actors on this show. 

We also have an incredible crew led by our wonderful Stage Manager Martin. Has there been a human with a greater passion for Uno. I don't know that there is. We have been in great hands with Martin and Kelly and the entire gang. I will miss the deep resonance of Martin coming across the monitor. I will miss doing ballet poses with Athena at the automation desk, getting the cart in place as quiet as possible with Nikki, seeing Paul take a break from hoisting people into the air to watch glitter fall, Kalyn hitting me with the flashlight just as I hit the door in twister and of course Kelly and the all-important sword cross. Most fun scaring the living daylights out of the little kids in the cast and having the youth directors secretly laugh and then ask that I stop rilling up the kids.  I will not miss the two actors who hide under every dark corner of the theater to scare the living hell out of me before I hit the stage and do acting. You know who you are and ok, I'll miss that too. 

 

 

Happy Trails

There is a bittersweet ritual we will do twice today. Once the young cast members are fourteen they graduate from the show. We have I think five leaving us today. The graduation ceremonies will happen during intermission and they are sweet and sad. Some of these kids have been with the show for several years. Started out playing angels on the Ghost of Chrismas Presents wagon, to Tiny Tims, to Fan's and Turkey Boys. So it will be sad to say farewell. Mike Stotts is also saying farewell. I think he has seen some eleven or twelve companies of this show come and go. We get to wish him well today as he moves on to exotic New Jersey for his new position.

I hope we all get to be back next year and do it again. We will see what the fates allow. The cast members are all moving on to the next project, The Hartt students are getting ready to do their final semester and join us in New York, LA, Atlanta or wherever their fortunes take them. I move on too. I'll be scaling another mountain on a show that I love and I can't wait for it. But I hope I can keep the spirit of this show alive for a little while. To be kind, to be generous, to be unafraid to love.

I think that's the reason it comes back annually. We're going to forget. I'm going to forget. I'm human and life gets in the way. But this story reminds us that we are bigger and better than our paychecks. We are connected to something much greater than that. We are connected to each other and we are all scaling mountains. All the time with these mountains. So love and kindness it goes a long way in making our burdens lighter and our joys even richer. Happy closing to this wonderful show and thank you for the reminder.