The last musical I performed for a real life audience was in 2019, and my goodness, I wish I appreciated it more. I did
not know it would be so long until I would be able to take a bow to something that was not my computer screen, to
hear voices instead of looking at comments and emojis.
We opened “The Funny thing that happened on the way to the Forum” on August 23rd, and I was pretty terrified! I
had just come out of a year of college, after not being in a show for a full year, and I felt the pressure to be wonderful.
After all, I wanted this to be perfect, it had to be after so long. But the show was incredible. Two of our performances
were sold out, and the audience thoroughly enjoyed it - how could they not? The cast was extremely talented, and
very bonded as well. We all missed that feeling of being a company, of backstage banter and gifts and speeches, of
standing in the wings cheering our friends on. It all came flooding back to me and as I was on stage, I felt so
incredibly lucky. This is something I had taken for granted for so long, and I know I am going to appreciate every
single performance from now one after knowing what it felt like to not be able to.
We have closed our show, however the feeling remains and lives on through the press and praise we received, the cast
photos, and my blessed memories. I am currently working on being the assistant stage manager for the youth
production of west side story, so the work never ends!
Alex <3
