Curtain Call

The production of "Noises Off" has come and gone. It was a wonderful experience to work with my high school director one more time before he died.
At auditions back in December we were informed and prepared that Dana might not live through the whole prodcution. Doctors had only given him a couple of month left to live before the cancer took over. I think it's safe to say that we all tried as much as we could to prepare ourselves, but I'm sure we all thought the best and planned on him being there the whole way through.

Rehearsals were a great. Tireing, aggrivating at times, and productive. Personally, I was very intimidated by my role. I was playing "Brooke" the ditzy girl that runs around in her underwear. Dana wanted to give this role to me as his last gift as a teacher. He knew it would be a big challenge, but he knew I would take it and run with it....I just didn't know I could.
Dana saw the first three shows, but had to go into the hostpital for Saturday's performance. By the next Thursday he was gone. He went to the doctors and they were surprised that he was still up and running. A man in his condition normally would be in a coma. He managed to fly home from the doctors Wednesday night, and was home with his family and best friends all of Thursday. We heard news of his failing health right before going up. After curtain call we met in a room and we told he had passed away during the third act.

There was something magical about that night, and the performances that followed. We dedicated every moment, every line, every breath to Dana and his vision for the show. Dana wanted to leave the theatre hearing people "laugh their asses off". I think we were very successful in doing that. We extended the show one more weekend to share the gift of laughter just a little longer.
By closing night the show was completely different than when we first began. More lively and even more funny.
I still hear compliments from people, some from complete strangers who come into the bank. They say they have never laughed so hard and it was exactly what they needed.
Dana's passion to use laughter to create unity and healing is something I think that I got from him. He may be gone, but what he has taught and passed on to each one of us that knew him. He will always be here.
Here's to Dana. Here's to laughter.

And here's to world peace one laugh at a time.