Saturday Night Show

Our second performance of "Heaven Can Wait" went much better than the first. There were no major mistakes that I noticed, and only a handful of insignificant, easily covered tiny mistakes. It was the best run through of the entire show we've had thus far.

With opening jitters, and major mistakes behind me, I felt more at ease and confident in overall success as I prepared for the show for an hour or so before curtain. I went over in my head possible solutions to cover the miscue that occurred on Opening Night, in case it were to happen again. I actually come up with a far less awkward response to it than what I had come up with on my feet on Friday night. I even rehearsed the possibility in my head a few times.

But thankfully, that moment never came. The scene in question, (which is my very first scene) came and went smoothly. I felt noticeably better after leaving the stage at the end of that scene. It all started to feel like it was running on track.

As a result, I felt more at ease with my performance, and was able to add a few tiny flourishes (not literal ones.) Cast mates may or may not have even noticed thus extra nuance, but I did these things more for me, and the feeling of a rich inner character life that I like to create on stage, more so than I did it to be noticed or congratulated. I hadn't been able to do much of that during tech week as I normally do, and opening night has already been discussed. So on Saturday I got creative. It was quite liberating.

Unfortunately, the audience, though large (about two-thirds capacity again) was not very responsive. Certainly not in comparison to Friday night's crowd. Judging by their comments during the meet and greet in the lobby afterward, they did in fact enjoy the show very much. They just waited until the show was over to be vocal in their expression of such sentiments.

It felt in some ways as though Opening Night had been our final dress rehearsal, with an audience. Saturday was when things appeared to coalesce into something. I didn't go out to celebrate after the show as I had the previous night, but I nonetheless was in a celebratory mood. I had done virtually everything I had planned to do. All of my goals were achieved for the scenes I appeared in, and I made improvements in several places in which I wanted to improve. I left the theatre that night ready to slip into a polished routine for the rest of the run.