Well, Well, Well

Last night the final dress rehearsal was played to a full house of Panamanian university students.

They loved it!

(Remember, this play is done in Spanish, or rather bad Spanish or Spanglish. I could see them correcting our Spanish and enjoying it.)

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I didn't expect this play to be such a big hit.

It started out on the cool side in the restaurant where the play is presented. This was a huge improvement from previous rehearsals. It was an evening rather than afternoon performance and there had been rain in the afternoon, all helping to keep the room a little cooler.

Not cool mind you, but cooler. I didn't start to sweat until I put my costume on.

The opening scene had the emcee and the 2 girls doing an intentionally bad performance of La Bamba. The crowd applauded it! What? And laughed! A good start.

The laughs came in a steady stream, frequently with rolling intensity.

What a difference the audience makes in a comedy. I can now say rehearsing a comedy is disorienting without the feedback from the audience.

Now for the weird part...

After the play, the director actually hugged me and told me I did a great job. And, he hugged the entire cast. He was smiling, no grinning ear to ear!

Never, and I mean never, has this director told any of his previous casts they "did a great job" much less hug them. Even in the magnificent Vagina Monologues, effusive praise was missing. If any performance deserved praise, it was the Vagina Monologues.

Hhhmmm??? I don't know how to interpret this. Maybe slapstick humor is that powerful.

We will see how the gringo opening night goes.

At least I am now hopeful!