Running Hot!

King Lear: Performance Day 3

Hitting your stride can be a beautiful thing. A few shows in and we’re beginning to find that confidence and completeness that we’ve been striving for. Theatre so much reminds me of team sports, not only in the obvious ways but more in the performance after hours of grueling repetition. The zone is something athletes refer to as an oneness or autopilot they find when they are completely focused and involved. It is almost as if they can see into the future. In theatre, you can see the future every night when you run the show and you fill every second with your concentration. It becomes apparent when the past, present and future converge in one moment, an instant ahead of the moment you are in. In this place of complete relaxation and concentration you reach a place described in eastern philosophy as “non-action” or “non-being.” This is the ultimate for any athlete and as much so for any actor.

It is also apparent that with any opening night, there must be a closing night as well. With a show like this, the closing already looms in the back of our minds. When you get the thrill and energy of a show and then have to walk away, it is frightening. Many of us will go back to our day job or back to the city to look for another role, to start the process over. I am lucky. I start rehearsals for my next show the day after we close so the let down won’t be quite as great. Something, however, tells me this one will be hard to walk away from.

As I am sitting at my table in the dressing room at intermission I find a calming thought wash over me. I am in the middle of one of Shakespeare’s greatest shows, with a fantastic cast and back in the profession I love and have missed for so long. We have opened to thunderous applause and wonderful reviews and I couldn’t be happier (check out the review in the Burlington Free Press at httphttp://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/LIVING/804260305/1004). I am exactly where I want to be. I will wait to deal with the let down of closing when we come to it. For now, I have act two to worry about.