Saturday was a long one for me, with final rehearsals for the Wesley Players' musical review "All Together Now!" beginning at 8 a.m., followed by shows at 2 and 7. It was exhausting but fun.
Most important was the community of 25 or so people of all ages who came together to quickly put it all together, and the realization that our little theater company was one of nearly 2,400 all across the planet who put on this show sponsored by Music Theater International.
MTI publishes and distributes a large percentage of musical scrips to theaters and the event was limited to a menu of song options. But MTI provided backing tracks and projections and more for free. Ticket sales went to the companies so the shows could be fundraisers as well as celebrations of live theater after 18 months of many stages being "dark."
Live theater really is a unique pleasure for both audiences and players, with no two shows being exactly alike. In my case, I can easily slip from nailing a number in one performance to flailing hopelessly to find the right notes a few hours later. That happened Saturday, but at least it went both ways. Some numbers were better at 7 p.m. Others? Not so much.
Unlike essays and reports and posts, live theater is ephemeral. Video can't quite capture it, so memory is where past shows have to live.
I was also reminded that most in the audience are blissfully unaware of the foul ups and wrong notes and premature entrances. They simply take it all in.
One similarity between writing and live theater is that there are usually opportunities to try again, to do some more work and invest more practice time and thinking... and produce something closer to what we had in mind.
Anyway, that quick show is already a bit hazy in the memory.
Like most of life.
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