Open Wardrobes

We closed The Hanging of the Greens this past weekend after our final two performances on Sunday. With the ending of any show comes a sadness that this wonderful thing we have created is finished, never to exist again. In a show like this, with such wonderful, talented people who put all their hearts into their work, it is a sadness beyond measure. I always have difficulty in the final performance of disconnecting myself from the finality of it all - this is the last time I shall do this, the last time I shall share this moment onstage with this person, and so on. With a show like Greens, where so much of it revolves around the families, it is for me even more difficult to say goodbye. I rather enjoyed being the "papa" for these seven amazing kids these past six weeks. Though most of us started as strangers, we did become the family to had to portray on stage. The family moments were genuine because they came out of the real bonds that we had formed with each other. I will miss everyone in the cast, to be sure, but yes, I will admit, I will miss my "family" all the more.


So it is no surprise that Sunday night was an emotional one. We ended up not striking the set due to the bad weather (the producers wanted everyone to get home safely and as early as possible). While in some ways I missed the closure that that can help bring (and of course it gives you those few last hours together as a cast), I am glad that I did not have to see my family's little house torn to pieces and put away. The next time I am at Lakeshore, it will simply be gone and perhaps that is best. I lingered as long as I could on Sunday night to say goodbye to everyone, wishing each of my children well. We had to opportunity this weekend to write notes of encouragement to each other, and I waited until home to take those out... which brought tears to my eyes once more.


This is the point where I must remind myself that there will be other shows, the change to reconnect with old friends and again make new ones, as was the case with Greens. Kate, Ali and I had the fun of reuniting after last year's Hansel and Gretel and the many moments of "Remember last year when...?" Us Greenies (as Claudia affectionately calls us) now have new stories to tell, wherever we end up.


So now I must start looking forward again, which is hard to do, and to the next project which for me is Fringe and my one-man show. Perhaps in part this is difficult because the show will by its nature be very much a solitary endeavor. It will be a great challenge for me as both an actor and writer and I feel deep down that it is important for me to attempt, but after coming from a big cast show I am conscious of all it will lack. Yesterday, at work, it happened that Leah Cooper, the past executive director of the Fringe, came in to share some of her experiences with Fringe and grassroots marketing efforts. And part of me because excited to start on the Fringe journey again, to take the risk it implies, and see if my show will stand or fall. And as I write this it hits me: having done the Fringe before I know it is not a solitary journey. There is a community around it and the sense that we're all in it together, it itself becomes a sort of family (with more strange uncles and crazy cousins than you can shake a stick at). And hopefully more than a few folks from Greens, Hansel and Gretel, and so forth will come out for it. There's nothing better than having your family there to cheer you on.

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.
-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities