#19: Aftermath

Closing night I got home late, slept in late the next morning, and then went back to the theater to help clean up.

People were already busy when I arrived at noon. Corinn, the co-owner of the theater, was bustling around doing whatever it is theater co-owners do. The lighting technician was up on a ladder replacing some piece of equipment that had failed. People from upcoming shows were drifting in and out measuring the space or investigating its features. It seemed odd that life was going on when our show had closed. Shouldn’t the whole theater world stop?

I swept the stage. Tasha swept the dressing room. I hung around awhile talking to a few people, then I left. That was it.

I thought about stopping for lunch, but that somehow seemed like too much work. Instead I had a peanut butter sandwich when I got home and dealt with the laundry.

When people asked me what I was going to do after the show was over I said, “clean the house.” I had gotten a little lax in keeping up with housecleaning and there was a lot of work that needed to be done. But first, I needed to catch up on sleep. I did little else on Sunday and Monday.

And then there were taxes to do and DEQ testing for the car and a spate of other things that had been put off or neglected. In spite of that, I managed to get the house in fairly presentable shape by Sunday when I had a guest coming.

We went off to see Boom Crash Love, a “Jazz-age Jukebox Musical,” by my friend Timothy Krauss. He wrote the book and selected the songs, all of which were from 1929 and 1930. (I told him jukebox musicals are taking bread out of the mouths of starving songwriters; he ignored me.) Boom Crash Love was also being presented as part of the Fertile Ground Festival, as my show had been, but it was a full production, whereas as mine had been only semi-staged. It was a really fun show with a great cast. And it got a glowing review on BroadwayWorld.com! (I’m so jealous.)

The following day I got up feeling lousy and by the end of the day it was clear that I had come down with a nasty chest cold. I had to cancel all my plans for the next two weeks. It did mean I caught up on my sleep, but fell even further behind on housecleaning.

I thought, as soon as the show had closed, I would be editing the video that we took of the performances. However, Nick Brown, the videographer, gave me a great deal on editing, provided I didn’t have a deadline. I certainly did not have a deadline. I was going to have to learn to use the software before I could start editing, and I had no idea how long that would take. And having an experienced professional do it instead? I took him up on it.

As for my musical plans, I don’t currently have any. It took me fifteen years (off and on, I’ll admit—and with a lot of off) to write The Gentlemen’s Ploy, and I haven’t yet stumbled upon a project that seems interesting enough to work on for fifteen years. Then there is simply the matter of age. (For the curious, I was born the night My Fair Lady opened: auspicious, wouldn’t you say?) I can’t imagine fifteen years from now having the energy to stage even a reading of a new musical, let alone a full production.

So, who knows what’s next?