The Nature of Our Business
Posted by James Vincent Meredith on 4/29/2008
Hard to believe that Carter’s Way just closed. It’s amazing, this business we’re in. So intensely close, yet so transient. On the last day of a show, I’m always a little broken up inside. It kind of feels like a break up, the end of a relationship. Not just with the actors you see everyday, but with the faces you get used to backstage, like Caleb and Rick and Noelle and Jamie and Gregor and Becky and Dawn and Martha W and Malcolm and Lauren and others. You remember small things, like waving to the Front of House person who sees you as you enter the theatre on the other side of the double doors, just before you head downstairs–how they always wave back. The box office employee who gives you an unexpected compliment on the show when you really needed it that day. The amazing artists who understudy us, who see the show all the time, surely tire of it, and yet are always warm and welcoming every time we come in (particularly Justin, for some reason).
And of course the other actors you work with day in and day out. People you see more often than your partner, your husband, your wife. People who you have to get so close to so quickly. People who you have to learn to trust and have confidence in. It’s hard to explain. You see these people everyday for 2 or 3 months at least, and then….
Nothing.
Eight shows a week. Learning everyone’s rhythms and personalities (and, probably in my case, moody streaks). Figuring out who likes to joke around before a show, and who needs to be alone. Who prefers the exact replica onstage every night, and who likes to explore a little more (within the existing framework, of course). Learning what we all need and want and require to do our best work. And then….
Nothing.
Well, that’s a misnomer. We all have friends and families we’ve missed, that we’re dying to get back to, and now we get to give them much needed and deserved time. But I’m going to miss everyone. As per the nature of our business, we’ll probably all see each other again at various times and places. But never again will this whole group be together exactly as it was on Sunday. That’s the part about this that I’ve never been able to get used to, that I’ll never get used to.