Opening Night

I apologize for the lack of postings this week.  On Tuesday, I woke up with a severe sore throat that quickly turned into a full-blown illness.  By Wednesday, I was running a 100+ fever with congestion.  I rushed to the doctor immediately to get some antibiotics in the hopes that I could feel better before opening night on Friday.  Even with the medicine, it just seemed to get worse instead of better.  I tried to get as much rest as possible, but still had to miss the first dress rehearsal.  I was contagious, and the director didn’t want to risk me infecting the rest of the cast.  Needless to say, it was a rough week.

When Friday came, I was still running a low grade fever, but I had the day off from work so I got lots of rest and went through my lines in preparation for the evening performance.  I was a little nervous about the show since I hadn’t had as much practice this week as I’d hoped.  Being sick during tech week is not cool!

I arrived a little early on Friday night to run through a scene in Act III that we’d been unable to do in costume since I wasn’t at the 1st dress rehearsal and was sick at the 2nd dress rehearsal.  We quickly did the run through, and then it was time to get ready for the show.  Fifteen minutes later, they opened the house doors and let the audience inside.  Soon, we’d be on stage — an exhilarating and scary thought.  I’ve never had the distinct priviledge of acting when I was sick.  It was going to be an interesting night.

When the time came for me to step onto the stage, I put aside my sickness and transformed into my happy “peppy” character again.  My nerves calmed, and it flowed just like it had countless times before in rehearsal.  Thank God!  Except for an interesting snafu with the lights — where we had an unexpected blackout during our scene — everything went great on opening night in spite of my sickness!

Thankfully, I’m feeling better today.  My fever is gone, so I think I’ve almost won the battle!  We perform again tonight, so I’m resting just to make sure I can fully kick this sickness to the curb.  And I’m looking forward to next weekend where I should be able to perform back at full health — and have a little fun doing it!

If you haven’t bought tickets and want to see the show tonight or next weekend, it’s Plaza Suite at McKinney Repertory Theatre.  Check it out.