Saying a Difficult Farewell to 'Picnic'

Hi there. On Sunday, March 29th "Picnic" came to a close. It was very sad.

On Sunday morning, I woke up for church at about 6:30 to shower and get ready for the show. I left for church at around 8:15 arriving at 8:30. I then sang for the 9 and 10:30 services. I sang a wonderful song called "What Have We to Offer?". This song is special so I'm going to go on a small tangent here.

Tangent: This song is a song that I sang with my friend Chris almost
every Wednesday at church for about 6 months prior to her diagnosis (see
previous post). It was everything I could do to hold back the tears. Her widower
was at the first church service. I'm not sure if he knew what the song meant to
me, but it made it all the more difficult to hold back my tears.

Anyway, following the two services, I headed immediately to the theatre with a quick stop at subway along the way. Once at the theatre, I unloaded my gifts for the cast and crew. I made them picture collages and bracelets (book marks for the guys). Leaving them in the dressing rooms, I headed to the green room to eat my sandwich. There, I ran into a cast member trying to get the CD player to work (We'll call the cast member CG for "Cool Girl"). And getting rather frustrated about it. Moments later a second cast member arrived (We'll call her SH for "Sweet Heart"). So, SH walked into the dressing room to discover her gift on the counter. I followed her in, knowing that she would be needing a hug. She opened her gift and almost immediately started crying. She then grabbed me and gave me a huge hug, all the while telling me just how wonderful and sweet I am. Thanks, SH. You're the best!

After this teary hug-fest, SH and I walked over to the green room. SH was still in tears and told CG (who was clad in dark sun glasses, overalls, and rollers in her hair) that "[she was] a mess!" CG responded by removing her sun glasses to reveal tears and said "me too!" We all had a little cry/hug-fest. A little while later, I joked with SH that she was crying so much she was crying concealer. After that, I went to set my props and meanwhile most people arrived. I came downstairs and was greeted with hugs and tears by most of the women. Seeing their reactions to their gifts made it all worth while.

We had a really wonderful show and were visited by a few people afterwards, Following our final curtain call, we spent a few hours cleaning everything and tearing down the set. It was really sad. After the set was down and we were finished with our "chores," we enjoyed a cast party. It was fun. We had pizza and pop and everything else in the refrigerator. After we were done eating, some of the "Spirit of Lakeshore (George) Awards" were read aloud. They were all so very sweet. I was sitting next to SH and another actress (We'll call her PG for Pretty Girl). PG's note to me was read aloud. I started crying and so did she. My note to SH was also read and that was emotional for the both of us.

After some more tears, it was time to say goodbye. Many hugs were shared and tears too. The hardest part was saying goodbye to SH because I wasn't sure when I would see her again. After that, one of my brilliant actress friends in the show (We'll call her SC for So Cute!) came up with the idea to go to Washington Square after all the goodbyes. SC, PG, some other actors and I all went. Unfortunately, CG and SH had already left by then. After some good conversation, we all said our final goodbyes. It was extremely difficult to say goodbye to SC because we're very close and have known each other for a long time now and haven't been apart for very long since we met.

Today, my heart is broken. SC once said to me "with a heart as big as [mine], it is more at risk of being broken." This is so true. I often become attached to people after meeting them and every time a show ends, it breaks my heart. The thing about theatre is that you get to know people very well, maybe too well. You spend so much time together. For this show it was 4 weeks of intense rehearsals, spending 4-5 days a week together and then it was every weekend. In theatre, the show ends abruptly. One day you are spending four hours together and suddenly that doesn't happen anymore.

I miss the picnic cast so much. I'll never forget all the times we shared!

Love,

Kate

Here's a picnic picture:

[insert a very creative title here]

I know I’ve been neglecting my writing. I’ve just been crazy busy! This weekend Picnic opened at Lakeshore Players. We were so ready for an audience. I also finished up my job as student director at the middle school this weekend. Meanwhile, I’ve been writing a research paper for my English class on the topic of breast cancer. It has been a really interesting experience for me. I also have a voice contest tomorrow, so I’ve been preparing for that.

Awhile ago, I promised to write about the greenie sleepover. I do realize that it was almost a month ago now, but I remember everything just as vividly as I did then. We played lots of games and had tons of fun just hanging out with each other. I had a good time catching up with everyone and after a long, hard week, it was a welcome relief. That was of course the same week that Chris died. At the sleepover, I gave my wonderful greenies each an award based on something that was special and unique to them. Then at the end darling Jan, asked aloud if there was “a greenie with the biggest heart?” I am tearing up just thinking about it. I almost started sobbing there in front of everyone especially when all the other greenies started clapping and then they all came up and hugged me. My goodness, that had to be the sweetest possible thing that could have happened to me. We also sang karaoke at the sleepover. Here's a picture:

So, the middle school play. I was the student director of a musical production called Dear Edwina there. The show was very cute and the kids did a wonderful job. Here’s a picture of the cast singing one of my favorite songs from the show: “Hola Lola.”

Picnic opened this weekend. We had a wonderful time celebrating MaryHelen’s birthday the night before opening. We opened on Friday to a really wonderful crowd. I am very pleased to report that the cast is finally bonding! Yeah! Most recently, I bonded with a very lovely actress. I won’t mention names. She and I have become really great friends. I had always liked being around her, it just took a while to break the ice and we finally did. So, now we can be friends! We only have one little interaction on stage, so we didn’t get to know each other very well during the first few rehearsals, but now that we’ve spent so much time together, we’ve become friends. Here's a few Picnic pics:

If you haven’t had the chance to come see Picnic yet, please do. I promise it’s worth your time. The info can be found here: http://www.lakeshoreplayers.com/

Love,
Kate