A Home Run

Wednesday afternoon, after being off for 4 days, we had a run through rehearsal for the play.

It was a disaster.

We stalled several times and had to be fed lines to continue. I got completely derailed by the producer who got snide with me about sloppy memorization. Then, I was fixated on "doing it right" which is always bad form for anything live.

At one point, I froze. Uh oh.

So it was back to the bedroom to re-do and practice lines, to try and avoid a miserable Thursday night. And practice I did, over and over and over again. My relationship to repetition is a little different now.

With much trepidation, we started the performance on Thursday night.

Something snapped into place for me. The lines came effortlessly. The performance was easy, spontaneous and fast!

At first I was worried about over acting. I was loud...really loud way back to rear wall. And I was trying new things, just in the moment.

I knew I was in the zone, the pocket, the groove. I could feel it.

I am familiar with this way of being from speaking and playing music. It is magical because it is impossible to do anything wrong. Everything works. As if by magic.

And, it was a magical night.

I was hoping I would have one of these nights. It would be impossible to evaluate my relationship to acting without a night like this.

Now I know what it feels like to actually act. Go figure!

During the First Act, the director wandered over to Yella, who was running the lights, and whispered, "well, finally we get to see some acting from Tom."

I'm not sure what acting is, but I got closer last night.

We are sold out all week.

This will mean that about 350 will attend the play, which I believe is either a record or close to it here in Boquete. Most producers plan on about 250 people attending.

Now, the big problem is keeping the performances up and consistent without falling back.

We'll see.

(P.S. It is hard to get pictures of the play because no flashes are allowed. There was a journalist attending last night trying to take pics without a flash. If I can, I will get some pics)

On another note, the weather has shifted out of the windy season (summer) to the beginning of the rainy season, my favorite.

Calm, sunny mornings, rain in the afternoon and everything is green, green, green.

Ahhhh!!!! This is what I like.