Triumph in Overcoming Obstacles Tonight

If you have been reading the blog lately, you know that I have been juggling as fast as I can and dropping some balls...One of the balls that I most worried about, that means the most to me, is the interpreted performance of "Rent" which I finished tonight.

I think the show went very well. It wasn't perfect, but it was as close as a live performance can really get. We hit a lot of the simultaneous signing moments - not all. Many of the songs require some simultaneous work and it can be really, really difficult to pull off. With the office move, the long weekends, long days, I was worried about the show.

The beauty of a show like "Rent" is that I know the show inside out. I never wonder where we are or what will happen next. This reduces the anxiety in some ways, but increases it in others.

Standing out on the platform, looking out at the audience when the performers are singing "Seasons of Love", an iconic piece that is the most well-known music in the entire show, I felt a sense of knowing - I understand this show - not only on the level of knowing it inside out, having the breaths memorized on the CD, having seen it so many times...it is also a sense of knowing how it feels to have everyone dying around you. Being "the witness" to so many lives, so many stories. One of my friends said that it was obvious how much I love this show because it shows through in my interpretation. I hope that is true. I do love this show and I love what it has to say.

Anyway, I feel like I triumphed because I was worried that I wouldn't connect because I have been so tired. I was worried I wouldn't be able to produce enough adrenaline to get through the show. That I wouldn't come up with good translations for "Glory" and "Seasons of Love" in time. That I would have a low energy performance. NONE of these things happened.

It feels good.