ROBBLOG # 224

I have an empty feeling today.

No, not because I haven’t had any contact with my family in over a month and I miss them terribly.
No, it’s not that…I don’t.
I’m used to that scenario.
It’s happened a ton of times before- like 5 years ago when Tom and I were planning for our marriage- the official one as far as the laws of the land of Canada are concerned. Nobody talked to us for three months. My brother never came to the nuptials and as far as I can remember he has neither talked nor asked about the ceremony- or anything.
Maybe he’s seen pictures.
Maybe not.
Not to be outdone, there were missing links from Tom’s side of the family too.

However, this is not what this blog is about.

I am feeling empty because a show that I was in has just finished.
“Looking” from playwright Norm Foster’s pen and presented by Mariposa Arts Theatre, has just finished it’s two week run at the Studio Theatre at the Orillia Opera House. I have felt this way before. There’s always a closing to a show. Unlike Phantom of the Opera or Mamma Mia, eventually the show’s run comes to an end. People that you have worked with and been with for months becomes as unimportant to your day-to-day routine as someone you pass in the street or sit next to on a bus. It’s just a fact of theatre. You have this close-knit family for a certain stretch of time and then the curtain comes down and that’s it.
That’s it?
Yup, that’s it.


L-R: Me, Phyllis Johnson, Jim Dwyer & Patti Scott

 Doing this show with a cast of four and the backstage crew of twice that number, has been a wonderful experience. I learned much. It was a departure for me. The character I portrayed was nothing like me- except for the fact that he was a radio broadcaster for a Jazz station. A format- it just so happens, I have never worked in.

It was a funny show. It was a delight to hear the audiences laugh. To deliver dialogue and hit them with a second or third punchline- just as the laughter peaked and started to fall. It’s a real good feeling when the audience and the actors are in sync. But now it’s done. It’s over. The dialogue will start to disappear from my memory banks over the next weeks and months. I always wonder how I can keep it in my head for several weeks. Then, as soon as my brain gets the message that the show is over, the dialogue starts to fade.

The one glimmer of hope for this show is the fact that it might be re-mounted as part of
a Summer Theatre lineup.
That would be exciting if it comes true.
I am waiting to hear.


Cast & Crew

So, the emptiness will stay with me for a few days as I wean myself off the show, the character and the relationships that have been forged since last October.

As one of my lines of dialogue within “Looking” says:
Don’t cry because it’s over.
Smile because it happened.
Truer words…