I promise that my personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair.

Yesterday was fabulous.

In every sense of the word: “fabulous”.

Really.

I had to work in the morning; with the book fair going I couldn’t very well leave it to poor Jake or Paige to cover my desk and take money/make change/answer questions about the book fair, and run a Clifford story time program, so I worked. However, that meant that I was at the library to take a rather cool call from a woman for whom I had found a book and she wanted to tell me it changed her life, and she wanted to personally thank me. Go me! So, I’m feeling awesome and loving my job, and people are great. I had two teens playing Clifford (both excellently, I’d like to add), people showed up for the afternoon program – it was all good.

Then I get out of work, go home, shower, change, and am off to the theater to get ready for the show. That’s right; last night was The Vagina Monologues. I should mention, I left the library a bit late after closing yesterday because I was writing my opening speech for the show (it’s always good to do that at least a few hours before curtain…right, remember the other night when I was procrastinating on the internet….). So, really it was going from one thing right to the next, kind of like how all the rehearsals went, but anyway… So, I go to the theater and begin getting ready for the show, putting the names with the headshots, and then remembering all the stuff I forgot (my speech, the CD with the opening and intermission music, the blanket for the stage, the extra script, pretty much everything I was supposed to bring) and the fact that Jay wasn’t home for me to get a hold of him so I needed to find the stuff elsewhere. Mildly panicked phone calls were made, and everything was found. Luckily everything else fell in place. I got it all ready, then Cody did my hair (so cool – up yet down, frame my face yet out of it, pulled out the purple – just excellent-cool!), then Larisa did my make-up (yeah, I know, I’m not one of the main actresses, but no one was there, and damnit, I wanted a little pampering!).

Then after warm-ups, herding of actresses, water, chair-counts, boa fixing, and so on, I had to give a pre-show pep talk to the cast. I pointed out that the audience was here and already loving them (with a name like “The Vagina Monologues” you aren’t going to have a lot of people showing up without a clue what they’re getting in to – they already know and they want to see you do it), that they were beautiful and fabulous and representing very worthy causes in our community. By the way, the show sold out the day before the performance; we were selling “standing only” tickets to a waitlist of (at one point over 80 people) at the end (WAHOOOOOOO!)

Then the show started.

It’s one thing to be in the audience watching and reacting; it’s another thing to be involved in the heart of a production that an audience is watching and overwhelmingly loves; they laughed – they got all the jokes!! All the things I was encouraging the actresses to do that seemed silly or fell flat in rehearsal translated to the audience and they laughed and they enjoyed it, there was the pain of some monologues balanced with the humor and heart of others. That isn’t to say it was everyone’s cup of tea – I noticed some empty seats after the intermission, and one guy apparently stormed out after 5 minutes of act I – he ranted at Jay about not expecting “that kind of smut”. Jay pointed out that “with a name like ‘The Vagina Monologues’ what were you expecting?” And he ranted more then Jay helped him locate the way out of the theater. One of the actresses joked that perhaps it was not the kind of smut he was hoping for (I like that thought!).

Oh yeah, my speech seemed to go well enough. I was absolutely parched and my teeth were sticking to my lips, but I spoke well enough – I think.

And the lights during the show were spectacular! One audience member noticed the use of color and light and told me that she applauded us for it – thank you, Ira for making the show look incredible!!!

Anyway, skip to the end (and a loooong standing ovation), the cast calls me on stage and Jan makes a speech about working with me that makes me want to cry –about being laid-back and funny, and it was just so sweet – and I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the cast along with Heidi and Jeanie (I got the best speech, IMHO!! :0). Then I left with the cast off-stage, and the walk through the audience was long, and people were stopping me, and hugging me, and thanking me! It was amazing. Jay stopped me in the lobby, which turned into a receiving line of sorts as a couple of other cast people were there, and the audience would filter out and tell me something about their experience watching the show – how they felt, what they thought, something that it reminded them of, and so on.

It was a bit overwhelming. I felt like last night I did something bigger than myself. I was able to see first-hand the response from the audience. To hear from them and share their feelings and thoughts was more than I had anticipated.

And the cast! They were so sweet; over the course of actually leaving the theater (Jay and Bill are going back to clean up tomorrow morning) and the cast-party at Oona’s, most of the cast caught up with me individually, and I was hugged and thanked, and appreciated. The cast party was a blast. Vinnie the Vet was providing the live music and he was excellent – as always (and doesn’t mind when I sing along, which is good)! The food was nice, Oona was great, and all in all, it was a nice night.

Finally 1:30-ish, Jeanie, Bill, Jay, and I left Oona’s to head home. And now, I’m reeling from a day of being appreciated and loved by a lot of people in one evening. It’s not that I’m intentionally stand-offish really, I just wasn’t raised in an environment where people hugged, my childhood was not full of the warm fuzzies that Allegra benefits from, so as an adult I’ve decided that it’s something I was missing out on and have been consciously trying to change – I’ve come along way, and last night was like being in some sort of immersion therapy. Everybody hugged and kissed and shared and talked, and in my own quiet way I was able to participate more than I ever would have before, and I enjoyed it.

So, yeah, great show. But I’m glad that it’s over now and all of the things I’ve been saying I would get back to doing after the show are suddenly all piled up waiting for me to do. I don’t think I’m going to direct this again. Activist theater is such a different ball game than entertaining theater, and I think that the next V-Day event in Bellows Falls needs to have a new director and a new feel to the show to keep it fresh – I’m not sure we’re a large enough community to support an annual showing of the Monologues; perhaps every other year with lots of changes from show to show. That’s just some thoughts though, nothing in stone, it’s all still being discussed and nothing is decided. I would certainly help, but probably focusing just on producing the show.

Regardless, last night was excellent and I’m glad I was part of it.