January 25, 2005
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The Daily News
1 Post mortem. Always a tough day. It's always the Monday after a closing night. I'm actually pretty used to it after all this time, but still, it does hit you when you least expect it. I always used to quote the ancient film FAME:
a pie in the face comes with the job...
2 Huh?
3 Well...nevermind. This DN is pretty desultory.
4 Yeah, okay, well, look it up.
5 Yesterday was tough. When drama class rolled around, I just couldn't bring myself to get the kids all up and motivated to do the next exercise. I had the blahs. We wound up watching and analyzing an old American Idol episode, not the best of all plans, but entertaining.
6 I guess I was okay until I went backstage and saw a book of one-acts. I automatically moved to pick it up and begin planning for the next Show. Rough stuff. I walked past it, pretending it didn't exist.
7 I also notified Ms. Robledo yesterday that I was no longer going to be teaching drama next year. I'm hoping she can get someone in there who might want to, because it does have way more rewards than not, but at this point in my life, I really need to move on.
8 After school, it really was interesting. Outside the Theatre, the kids seemed busy as the proverbial beehive, serious, moving here and there, on cell phones, computers, painting posters, and I just stood in the sun, leaning against the TOOONDRA, smiling, because, in all their zeal, they weren't stopping to smell the roses. To them, the next big thing was right around the corner.
9 To me, one of the most poignant and wistul days continued to beat on. Twenty-four years of Shows, done in an instant. I had just walked through the Theatre, looking at the heart balloons from closing night, sort of giving them a kick here and there. At one point, I looked up, noticing that the mirror ball was still turning from the final scene of the final night. The students kept running around, back and forth, getting prepared for the next big thing. I stood at the truck, smiling about the pain inside, and nobody getting it.
10 That's as it should be.
11 After all, it's almost time for the next big thing.
12 As has often been the case this last semester, I smiled on the outside, while inside, there was what I have come to call exquisite pain.
13 And I just stood there, staring, smiling, and living.
14 Life goes on.
15 I don't know if anyone reading this actually gets it, and frankly, I don't really care. Twenty-four years. And kids ran in and out, and around campus, in the Theatre, into the lab, through the office, and back outside. Everywhere I looked, things were pretty normal. I sighed.
16 I noticed that the flag still waved atop the Theatre, so I sent Sparky to grab the flag and bring it down. Perhaps he waved it and yelled, "VIVA LA FRAH! VIVA LA FRAH!" I don't really know.
17 Fortune favors the bold.
18 Eventually, I hopped into the Tundra, turned over the engine, and drove off.
19 After all, I needed to get home and rest for the next big thing.
20 Peace.
fin.
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