And Just Like That...

After a short but surprisingly successful four-show run, we are done with The Good Doctor. It was an extremely intense, yet ultimately gratifying period of my life, the time between the inception of the Camden Civic Theatre company and last night's closing show.

I rediscovered the thrill and joy of stage acting and the experience was made all the more rich for the extent to which I am, this time around, willing to immerse myself in understanding and appreciating all aspect of the produection. This includes both the thankless slogging and hard work offstage, and the extent to which a group of performers and talented, creative backstage magicians work together to create a whole which is truly greater than the sum of its parts. I don't think I ever approached truly getting that in my first twenty some-odd plays (basically, everything prior to age 22).

Friday night was so sold out, we ended up squeaking in a total of 90 patrons into a space that was intended to accomodate 60; and still had to turn around 10 folks away. Last night was still a sellout, although considerably less so; and a fair number of "comps" (friends, family, advertisers known to company members) were out there. It made for a particularly friendly and loose crowd, laughing in all the right places and then some. Throughout the entire run of the show, CCT and individual actors have received praise and compliments galore. Not sure how much of it is as a result of exceeding a particularly low expectation of what a Camden-based community theatre could put out there on its first shot, but I believe that the talented group of people involved in this whole production, against a considerably stacked deck (time-wise, budget-wise, and in terms of various other random logistics), put together a production of which I would have been proud to be a part in front of nearly any audience, anywhere.

In the past six months, I've gone from essentially zero to 10 in terms of knowledge of what is required to put on a production (well, more like two to eight or nine). Now, hopefully, we have some infrastructure built in as a company so we're every-so-slightly in a better position, next time around, to hit the ground running. We have some funds (we're way more in the black at the end of this show than we expected, and we've got an outstanding grant application), a few more props, and a few volunteers that are planning on coming back for the next show. I'm hoping a couple of more company members come on board and, for my part, I'm going to try to keep my feet a little less solidly in both camps of planning/preproduction and performing, and try to commit myself to one or the other. But...looking back...wow, a post that was seven months ago seems like it could have been five years ago. In retrospect, I'm so glad I trusted my heart and took a chance!

p.s. special commendation to Mighty Tom, who made the drive from Cottonwood Minnesota and Stephen, who made the drive all the way from Iowa City in order to see me perform. Wow-guys, thanks. I am honored and humbled and I hope you enjoyed the show.