My Life in the Theatre: The First Weekend

We did it! We made it through the first weekend, and the show gets better each time.

The actor in my scene woke up Saturday with a broken blood vessel in his eye; he joked that he could change his line to include a reference that my character Martha had belted him in the eye during her temper tantrum. One member of my loyal coworker group remarked on Opening Night that she was so glad that I hadn't told her any of my lines; she thought it was the perfect part for me. I am certainly more like the mouthy, overworked sister than the demure Mary. Saturday's audience was not as big and very quiet, but many remarked that the show was powerful. One young man, a former student at my school, came up to say hello after the show and two season subscribers/family members told me that I did a good job.

The Sunday matinee was almost sold out and I knew that I had a large number of coworkers and my parents coming. After our vocal warm up, our director and photographer to the stars Sharon A. Wilcox informed us that some of the photos she took during Opening Night were posted on the PSC Facebook page. Once backstage, everyone ran for their cell phones to view them (thank God for wifi!) This made the 30 minutes to curtain go by quickly. I have posted some of the best ones here. Right before the performance began, the stage manager came backstage with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me from the group of faculty and staff from the school where I teach. Some of the guys pretended to be jealous!

The PSC partners wanted me to do the announcements before the show began, so I had prepared a card with notes.  Then Ed, ever prepared, left me a sheet of paper on the prop table with nine topics to cover. I went with his list and just injected a bit of myself into it. After the welcome, I said, "My name is Nancy Sasso Janis and I am the self-appointed theatre critic/blogger for Naugatuck Patch.com, but today I will be playing the role of Martha. Lucky for my readers, the amazing Val Vitalo, a frequent flyer on the Phoenix stage, volunteered to this particular show." After the upcoming events at the theatre, I got to "shout out" to my Maple Hill School friends and even wish one a happy birthday. I closed with "Places was called five minutes ago and I need to get to mine. Please enjoy The Last Supper." I was amazingly calm; the fact that the spotlight that I stood in did not allow me to see the audience probably helped.

The show went well and after the curtain call, I headed out in my full costume to thank everyone for coming. At least two people thought that the music was recorded until I pointed out TJ's platform in the back of the house where he played the piano and directed us. It takes me a while to put away all the prop fruit and wooden bowls and wash out the chalice, so it seems like I am always the last one to leave the theatre.  Can't wait for next weekend!