Opening Night

The opening night show is almost never the best show-- not to say it's the worst of a shows run, but it's not usually the one held in apotheosis.  Ah, but opening night is still (dare I say it) magical in its own right. Why? Well, every show is one that no one else has seen before, but the first one is the first time that anyone has seen that particular show-- ever.  And even a bad (unresponsive) audience brings something new to how everyone involved in the production goes about the show.  From having read and heard the script over and over you know where audiences are supposed to laugh and it's soo rewarding when they actually do laugh (and slightly devastating/disheartening when they don't).  But sometimes, if you're lucky, you'll get a surprise and get 'em to react to something that you didn't know was supposed to be funny or sad or surprising or unsettling.  And sometimes unexpected occurances come in the form of technical difficulties and not-yet-ironed-out problems with sound systems, lights, actor cues, etc.  But it's okay, because everyone is running on Opening Night nervous optimism, it'll be okay, it's just the first show, things'll get better!