Manhattan Experimental Theater Workshop

a program of the Manhattan Arts Center in Manhattan, Kansas

Closing Night

by Gwethalyn

I could not agree more with Ashley’s assessment of opening night. Closing night went as well, if not better than, opening night. There were a couple of empty seats in the house, but not enough for all four of us on the directing team to sit, so we all stood on the sidelines for solidarity. I was so pleased to have full houses both nights (although technically we would have needed to sell four or five more tickets to have officially “sold out”).  I want to thank everyone who came out to see the show.  It is always so gratifying to get to finally share this work with an audience.  As I told the participants before the show, once the pieces start getting ready for performance I always start feeling like some sort of hoarder sitting on treasure that should really be shared.

I was also struck again, as I am every year, by the fact that closing night is the night after opening night.  The last three weeks of the workshop are so intense, the performers literally spend hours everyday working on the pieces and it all boils down to about 40 minutes of performance time, for each performer, over the two evenings. Can this be true? It feels like so much more while you’re writing and rehearsing, and definitely while you up there performing.  But this is a workshop after all, none of the pieces are really done by the time we present them, they are as good as we can make them in three weeks and then we let them go. After seventeen years working with this process I have made my peace with the fact that this is as it should be, but sometimes it is hard to keep hold of that on closing night.

 


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3 responses to “Closing Night”

  1. geckojuggler Avatar

    Always a bit of post-show depression …

  2. cheratomo Avatar

    Yes, I agree. It would almost seem fruitless if it weren’t for the fact that… you know, it’s meaningful.
    Plus the journey is really where it’s at. It’s a workshop, after all. The work is where the value is. Performance is only closure.

  3. calypsohoney Avatar
    calypsohoney

    Amen to that, Cara, although the performance also unleashes your work on the audiences’ minds, and believe me, it does live on in that way . . .

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