The Power of Now

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few decades, you know the advantages of living in the moment--in the Now. People actually go live in caves trying to attain this.

They might take up acting instead.

One of the gifts of acting before a live audience is being 100% in the now. Anything less spells disaster. 99.9% will catapult you into confusion, flubbed lines and shear terror.

Consequently, the time on stage zips by. An hour seems like a flicker of light on a dark night. Very fast, indeed.

Now for Opening Night.

There is an old adage: Good dress rehearsal, bad opening night.

We had an inspired dress rehearsal...so you can guess what the opening night was like.

It wasn't that opening night was bad, it just wasn't inspired. People got a good show, we delivered.

In the first couple of minutes, we stalled...the most dreaded condition on stage...three of us on stage...no one had a clue what was the next line...no on had a clue what got dropped...no one had a clue where we were in the scene...silence...and it goes on and on and on...maybe 10 seconds...a life time on stage.

But we got through it.

There were many laughs and even a tear or two at the end, more about this in a moment.

It is impossible to predict what will go wrong. In the second act, no one got the actor from the dressing room for his entrance in the next scene. The music stopped, the lights went up and...NO ACTOR.

Wholesale panic!!!

By the time the actor hit the stage, he was FRIED! Fortunately, he was the one and only seasoned, professional actor in the group and he handled it like a pro. A little ragged, but he got through it.

Now that was impressive!

Back to the Now.

This is how little it takes to throw off my concentration.

For the very last act, 90 seconds only, my stage wife and I talk directly to the audience from the stage. Very unusual in a play. Very powerful!

In this scene, the MOST POWERFUL EMOTIONAL LINE of the play is delivered by you know who, me.

Just before I went on stage, they told me to use a different picture of the dog...a much bigger picture. The stage manager whispered that she would put it on a chair on stage. (The last thing done in the play is showing the audience a picture of the dog.)

No problem, I would just go back and get it. Simple.

But...oh these damn buts...

When my wife walked on stage, she handed me the picture. I had no where to put it. I had to hide it from the audience. With the smaller picture, I put it between my pants and shirt in back, out of sight.

This is where the 100% concentration is broken. Now a small part of my mind is fishing around for what the F#$#@!! to do with the picture and I am delivering lines at 90% concentration.

The lines are coming out jumbled, one before the other, in an uneven flow. Plus, I am now pissed that I may flub the delivery of the most potent line in the play. My head was crowded with unnecessary crap, edging out the important stuff...the lines!

Rehearsal took over. The line came out almost right. The timing almost spot on.

The only thing missing was the necessary "way of being" to support the line. Hey, I was busy trying to figure shit out!

The line still had impact. Just not the resonating impact that culminates a great play.

Damn!

The audience didn't consciously now anything was wrong. They just didn't get the full impact of a great line, well delivered, supported with inspiration.

I went through that long diatribe to underline the tremendous Power of Now for acting, and well, probably everything else in life.

We delivered a play on the bottom wrung of competent.

Not bad considering! I was satisfied with it. I just wasn't thrilled.

Oh well, 5 more nights!!!

Let the show go on...

Oh, by the way.

This was opening night for the brand new restaurant where the play was held.

It is a minor miracle that anything worked at all, given all the newness and confusion.