My full length play Want, which has been in rehearsal for weeks and was scheduled to open July 29, will now open Aug. 4 for a two-weekend, rather than a three-weekend run. Our leading lady got COVID, which put rehearsals behind, and the set took longer to build than expected.
I think this was a really good decision. So much better to have a shorter, stronger run than a longer, wobblier run. Besides, this might mean larger audiences each night. I know this decision relieved everyone involved of a lot of tension and anxiety.
I, oddly enough, have not been tense and anxious at all. I learned a long time ago that, instead of biting my nails and hoping everything is going to work out and worrying about everything going wrong, I can simply embrace the possibility of failure. The actors might be terrible. Or the actors might be great but no one comes to see the play. Or people might come to see the play but everyone hates it. Yes, any of that could happen. Okay then, let's all just do our best.
I learned this lesson in the late '90s when I did my one and only skydive, a tandem, meaning I was strapped to a dive master. I was terribly nervous about it as I approached the plane, so much so that I was awfully afraid I was going to back out. So I thought to myself "Something might go wrong, and if it does, I'll probably die. Knowing that, accepting that, do I still want to do it? Hell yes." I simply put myself in the hands of my dive master; I did everything he said without thinking about it. If he had told me to set my hair on fire, I would have done it.
Of course I want my play to be a roaring success. Of course I want the actors to be brilliant and the audiences to be moved to laughter and tears. Of course I want the play to go on to greater success, to win a Tony and a Pulitzer. Of course I want my next play to be even more brilliant and more successful. Any of those things might or might not come to pass. Do I still want to write? Do I still want to see my plays performed? Hell yes.
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