Anticipation

The building is quiet. After weeks of late nights, memorizing lines, hanging lights, building sets, rehearsing, painting, patching, blocking, laughing, crying, yelling, stressing and having fun the first night is over. There is a sense of melancholy as you shut down the lights, make sure things are ready for tomorrow, walk down the stairs to the last few people waiting on you to leave for the party. You walk into the main space and stand there for a moment, listen to the whispers of the past, the present and the future, knowing that there were others before you and will be others after you leave, knowing that these people that you sweat, cry, laugh with will be friends forever. After all, how do you explain to someone who hasn't been through it what it's like. It's like this small group of people who know the stress, who are with you till all hours of the night and mornings become part of you. While you are working you become synchronized, anticipating the needs of others, knowing the next move before someone opens their mouth to ask for something. You are all of the same brain, knowing that like it or not, the deadline is looming and you can't miss it, so you work harder, lose sleep, drink lots of caffeine, order in, and turn up the music really loud and just get it done. And that night, that you are standing there, knowing that people are waiting for you, in the middle of that dark space, you know they understand why you need to take a minute, they don't rush you as you soak in the energy of the ghosts and memories that surround you, knowing that you will be leaving this place and that it will move on, different people will come in and they will create memories. As you take a deep breath and walk out to close the door on this space, you appreciate what this place means to you, knowing that it will never be the same again, but that the memories will live on forever with you.
Tonight, I will be able to relive some of these memories with some of those people. Although it has been several years for some of us, when we get together, we click again and it feels like just yesterday we were in that space and time that we had to work as one person to get the show up and running.