Sunday Afternoon

It turned cooler here today, and rather blustery.  I spent a good portion of the afternoon at the High School’s performance of “Once Upon a Mattress”.  After the show I spent some time tearing down the set.  I don’t often help tear down sets I didn’t help build or wasn’t part of the production in one form or another.  In this case I was just a volunteer with an electric drill.

Normally, I get a bit down when tearing down a set.  There is a lot of work that goes into making a play ready for an audience. Tearing down the set is the final goodbye for that show.  As an actor, there is always that part of you that wants the show to end.  On some shows this feeling is stronger than on others.  At tear down the feeling that you have of not wanting the show to end shows its head.   There are many emotions that go along with this.  You can feel relief, sadness, and happiness all at the same time.  You feel that it is good that the show is ending, but hating the fact you won’t have this same cast again.  Yes, I’ve worked with the same actors more than once, but in 10 years, I’ve never been with exactly the same cast.  Sometimes it is hard to leave that behind.

After getting way off track, I’ll try to get back to my point.  I had none of those feelings today.  It was just a mechanical thing getting the set down, and the stage cleared.  Not a big deal at all.  When the set was down, it was just time to go.  No seating in the theater talking about the show.  Where things were messed up, were the audience just didn’t get the joke.  All the in and outs that make theater fun.  We were done, I was tired and hungry, and I just wanted to go.  I like the other feelings better.  Maybe it was different for the students in the show.  I’ll have to ask the one I know.