"What say the citizens?"

 Short little blog entry tonight, just to keep the thoughts about this journey going, and so I can remember them myself, because it's been a whirlwind.  I'm glad that people are enjoying the show!  I really think it's going to grow into something very special, and much of it is already there.  The added element of the audience has leveled us up, for sure. 

It's such a joy to be on a stage in front of humans again.  I know the pandemic has done a number on a great many businesses across the globe.  Theatre actors lost everything!  It's a tough enough racket anyway, finding enough paying theatre work to make ends meet.  But then it was all gone.  Poof.  And sure we did numerous zoom shows and at SBTS we even did two pseudo-productions in our parking lot.  But the missing element was the audience.  And it is palpable.  On zoom, you can't even look into your fellow actors' eyes.  And there is no response.

Actors feel what the audience feels.  We know when you are with us, or not.  We feed off that energy!  Looking out into the faces of the audience the past three performances has been like breathing again for the first time in nearly 2 years.  I remember when I was younger I read an article that Mike Tyson only felt safe in the boxing ring. Can you imagine?  The safest he felt was when some other trained heavy weight fighter was trying to knock him out.  And I always felt safest in one place too...but in a much more controlled environment...the stage.  

Looking out into the audience and trying to make friends of them with my many soliloquys filled me with such happiness!  Hearing them laugh at the dark stuff, and enjoy it up until they just can't anymore and turn on Richard is what live theatre is all about.  Hearing Pantea get giant exit applause as my mother for cursing me with all her might fuels us all.  After intermission, I get crowned king (spoiler alert, King Richard III becomes king), and we have this wonderful procession down the center of the audience and I look into the eyes of people and smile and wave.  There is a mix of cheers and hisses.  Sunday night, a woman in the second row looked at me and said (rather quietly "boo.")  And so I looked at her and said, "I love you!"  And she smiled and said she loved me too.  This is the power of Richard!  This is the power of theatre.  That moment can only happen in that moment.  Some people around started to laugh and so I turned to the crowd and proclaimed "I love you all!"  And you know what?  I did, and I do!  I briefly won back all those who hated me for a bit...until they hated me again.

An audience member sent us this picture that they took of curtain call.  Standing there, I felt something I never felt during curtain call before.  Immense gratitude.  In this moment I understood what curtain calls were all about (after all these years)!  It's the chance to honor the audience for being part of this experience.  It's not so we can feel worthy.  It's the final exchange in this magical experience that we've all been a part of.  A time for us to be just actors taking in the missing piece of the storytelling--the audience.  And a time for the audience to see us and hopefully realize that we've just shared a story and we were all an integral part of it.

I have to tell you, Friday night, when we took our final bows I teared up.  I have to announce Lisa and Stephanie coming back onstage and I'm not sure what came out, but it was mostly just gibberish because my heart was too full to speak. (The other words I got wrong that night can be chalked up to not enough rehearsal).  But I'm word perfect now.  Come on down, and come on back!  Share this moment with us, that we so desperately need to share with you!