So The Tempest opened on Friday and I am so proud of all the work the cast and crew put into this show. I can’t wait to see how it grows during the run and it is going to feel strange to not be there for all the shows and to realize we won’t be going to rehearsal Monday. This is not an easy show and I’m proud of all the people who pushed themselves to make it happen!

Enjoying a hard earned drink after opening night at the fabulous Gala!

I had to push myself too! As I wrote before, I am SO THANKFUL that we were able to bring our son with us to rehearsals and for all the actors and crew that were happy to help watch him. He was in love with the attention and the atmosphere of the theatre. That didn’t mean having him there was easy! It’s a lot like trying to do two jobs at once. It required not only myself and my husband to deal with some crying, but the whole cast to graciously acknowledge it was happening and move on with rehearsal. We are SO THANKFUL they were willing to do it. And while it wasn’t easy, it was worth it and it ended up being helpful for more than one person we spoke with to see theatre and family life collide which in and of itself makes it a successful experiment to me. And even more importantly, I hope it starts a conversation that will continue about how we can support working families in various ways in the arts, a profession which is historically notorious for not paying living wages and frowning upon the choice to have children.

SO MUCH LOVE

I was beyond touched at the opening night gala to receive a gift from the cast of a beautiful complete works set from the 17th century! And just as touched that our son was given a Shakespeare rubber ducky as honorary third director. In fact, you can see in this picture me trying not to totally ugly cry as our stage manager called us amazing artists, people, and parents… it often felt in rehearsals like maybe we didn’t’ deserve that accolade but that triumvirate is certainly what we are striving for in life!

It has already been strange not to be at every performance since opening and it is going to be strange to not head out to rehearsal this evening. Of course, that doesn’t mean we are quite at the relaxing point. We are rehearsing at home and during the day for our next Lunch Time Theater show and actually just completed our revisions of our script for that today so it is memorizing central! And then The Taming starts rehearsals on Saturday!

We are learning as we go and I learned so much doing The Tempest  and hope if you are in the Phoenix metro area that you will check it out. Get your tickets HERE (you can get a discount by entering the code Trombley) and check out a few of these lovely production shots and here’s a cast picture from our opening night gala!

(All photos in this entry, including those linked to for production photos, taken by Shelby Maticic)