From Emma – Appreciating Now

Tonight, we go into our second weekend of Into the Dark.

But in the four days since our last show, it’s been a week of looking ahead. We had a field trip for the Civil War Project. We have a poster and postcard design finalized for this year’s Christmas City Follies. We had our first rehearsal for Follies. We’re in communication about our fabulous guest artist Sean Lewis for Killadelphia. And the apprentices are already having a preliminary meeting for Fresh Voices, which doesn’t open until February!

It’s absolutely vital for us to constantly be looking forward in this work, which always takes more time than expected, but it’s also work where we constantly have to remind ourselves to pause and remember where we are.

That’s one of the big challenges – and blessings – about putting on a show. It’s like we’re putting the rest of the world on hold for a couple hour, putting aside the things that we know have gone before or the things that we worry are coming, and we’re just present, together. Onstage or offstage, actors or technicians, the show doesn’t go forward if we can’t all be an ensemble, functioning in the “now”.

There’s a lot to get through today. But in a few hours, it’ll be time to put everything else on pause and just live in this world we’ve created in the show. Just us – cast, crew, and audience – all of us together, sharing the space, for an hour and a half. It’s a good feeling.