When the Show Doesn’t Go On.

Now what?

Community, cooperation, concepts, costumes, coaching, carpooling, characters created…Covid19.

If you aren’t in a theatre company, this is a metaphor for you. If you are in a theatre company, you know literally and figuratively that the show must go on. The show is life. And if all the world’s a stage, we are currently in a tragi-comedy. Yes, comedy is included or what’s the point? Kill me already. A bit of back story to this week:

Comedy of Errors opened Saturday, March 7.

The Shakespeare Youth Festival 2020 opened last week to packed houses and raves from the crowd. We are the youngest Shakespeare troupe in the U.S. — go on, challenge it! The Players (ages 7–11) were phenomenal and fearless! The audience was crazy for us. Ironically in Comedy of Errors, at any given point, a total of 8 characters would run on, declare some news and faint to the ground, marking the funniest moments in the show. That was a week ago…when fainting was funny.

A play is wrought. Not written.

As Comedy of Errors finishes, and before the Twelfth Night cast arrives, Troilus and Cressida gathers for a rehearsal — they gear up to open in two weeks. I am losing my mind at these fast transitions! From show to rehearsal: zero “basking” in…