So MUCH to say....Part I

Well. After the investment of my soul into "Man of La Mancha", it's hard to recap the incredible emotional roller-coaster of the show. I'm still exhausted (and certain tendrils of emotion will probably keep tickling my inner diva for a long time).

Let me start with the show itself. As reported earlier, opening weekend was a huge success -- I thought it was -- and by the (relatively) objective measure of audience response, life was good.

From a more personal standpoint, I knew the set was good (if not outright excellent). Ego ego, I know -- but I've been in and designed for enough shows to have, I think, a pretty good idea of what constitutes competence and acceptability, and when a technical design raises that bar. The set we put on that stage was simply above-and-beyond what anyone (I firmly believe this) could or would or should expect from amateur theatre.

So, coupling that with what I thought was a sparklingly good performance from the rest of the cast -- sparklingly good! -- I was crazy proud of this show. I can't, of course, be objective about my own performance, but given the audience response, I felt pretty confident that, at the very least, I hadn't utterly screwed it up.

And then (yet more ego (yeah, sometimes even I can't stand me)) I felt that the COMBINATION of designing and building a damn good set while acting and singing one of the most difficult and iconic roles in American Theatre deserved some kind of special plaudit. I haven't come across many (or, frankly, any) designers who could have performed it, or actors who could have designed and built it.

That's how I felt going into last Friday.