The Show: Opening Act

The nerves didn’t kick in until I walked out my apartment on Saturday afternoon, my steps leading me toward Garrison. My mother was in town, and would be leaving for the theater shortly after I’d schlepped my milk crate of props from Journal Square to Grand Central. Whew, on time. Where’s Tim? On the train? Ok. I’ll see him there. Found myself a window seat facing the river, and dozed in the afternoon sun. That is, until around halfway there, about 6:28ish, when a phone call woke me up. It was Tim. He’d arrived ahead of me … in Poughkeepsie. The theater is in Garrison. Hmm…fortunately, our show was the last that evening and he would have time to catch the next train to down the line (in another hour), and travel the 30 minutes back to Garrison. Fine. Can’t say that I was relieved by the news, or capable of relaxing until I saw Tim coming down that platform. Though that’s not entirely true—I did have some cake, bumped into my groupies, and ran lines with Giselle, all of which put me in a better mood for when he showed up. Which he did, a little after 8. As did Mary. So we scurried to the riverside shadows for run-thrus, and I pushed on into my second hour of pacing. The house emptied around nine for intermission. A few fireworks above West Point were a treat, and delayed the audience long enough for me to sneak into the house, catch up on the first half, and ready myself. Giselle and Tim prepared to break their legs. After an absurdist rendition of “Uncle Vanya” stumbled off stage (sorry, I mean an absurdly terrible rendition of a scene involving two “actors,” bad accents, and a shitload of hay), Tim and Giselle took the stage and I began with my sound cues. And less than fifteen minutes later it was over. Tim and Giselle bolted out the backstage door to catch the train back to New York, and I waited for the verdict on my play. The votes came in, and “The Concert” did not advance to the next round. We’d be back tomorrow afternoon for the wild card round. Seriously? Okay. Another shot. And just like that, I found myself having Taco Bell and a Modelo on my roof at 1am with my family. Ah, theatre.