Last week saw our final performances of Jo Marvel’s The Snapping Turtle’s Lament and I’m happy to say that we went out with a bang. The first week of performances didn’t receive very large audiences – some rumors blame audience dissatisfaction with the play that was presented in the theater the week before us – but our closing night was performed before a full house and, more importantly, I was very happy with the project as a whole.

This was a very special project. I had performed in original productions before. I had performed in plays written by friends before. I had performed in physical theater pieces before. I had performed in surreal – even absurd – shows before. But never before had I performed in an original production, written by a friend, that was so physical and so very surreal. Jo Marvel is a good friend of mine, but the inside of her mind is apparently a slippery, twisted, hilarious, and wondrous place, the depths of which I greatly admire and somewhat fear (but in a good way!). I am so glad I have had the chance to work with her and look forward to doing so again in the not-too-distant future.

And can you imagine traveling to a far off land, where you don’t speak the language, to stage manage an amateur theater production and not get paid? For three whole months? And while you’re there, be constantly followed around by an adoring little four-year-old, and get woken up regularly by an invasive little two-year-old? That’s a quarter of a year, people! That’s my amazing cousin Marli! Yes, it was great to have Marli here to help order our chaos. To structure our insanity. We needed it.

The play, on the page, confused the heck out of us actors. It took us a good month before we even kinda knew what was going on. It’s hard now to imagine what the audience must have gone through with us prancing around on stage, eating pasta, riding tigers, tripping on acid, bagging the cute, talking with turtles, and levitating out of our seats while spreading our 20 fingers. We knew exactly what we were doing!

And speaking of the other actors, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of misfits and rapscallions with whom to cavort. The whole rehearsal and performance process – which was very intimate to begin with – just felt so comfortable with these crazy kids. And Jo really amassed a motley crew. Stephanie is a comic genius, but had only ever been in one play before in her life (which I directed). Joey is a wise-ass and as sharp as a tack, but hadn’t been on stage since he played Annie (I think) in high school. And Therese is a seasoned actress with a good head on her shoulders, but hadn’t done any theater for over 10 years. How the hell did we pull this off? I don’t know, but we did. And it was good.

But now it’s over.

It’s hard to explain the strange feeling of emptiness one feels after having rehearsed a play with good friends for many moons, performing said play in front of numerous appreciative audiences, and then finding oneself with… nothing to do. The theater is so temporal, so ethereal. It’s a good thing I only had one day to dwell on this before I had to pack up the family and fly off to Florida for a little family vacation. And I’m already starting to plan the Jocular Theatre Spring ’11 season. An idle mind is the devil’s playground.

I wish I could post the photos from the show here for you all, but I don’t have them yet. You may have seen a few floating around on Facebook. I’m sure I’ll upload them them and post them here in the near future. You know, just like I still haven’t gotten around to uploading the photos from Lend Me A Tenor. I need an assistant.