opening night.

Well, it's here. Opening night.  Tonight at 8 p.m., I go on stage and do the thing I thought I could not do. This whole experience has been something else, let me tell you. Seventeen actors, fifteen scenes, Shakespearean language, all in just three weeks' time. I've lost weight. I've lost sleep. I've lost my mind. {At moments, at least.}

I must do the thing I think I cannot do.

I have done the best that I can do, and tonight, I will simply go onstage and share it. Shakespearean language, especially, is a gift, and all I want to do is give it. Make it accessible. Let people who have been frightened of it or turned off by it experience it in a way that makes them say, "Oh, my gosh! I get it! It's so real!"

I must do the thing I think I cannot do.

There's water on our stage. Two inches of it. And we must act in it, move in it, speak in it.  It's difficult, but we're doing it.

I must do the thing I think I cannot do.

I'm a professional actor. I've been doing this for fourteen years. But for some reason, this time feels different.  But, I'm going to do it, because I have to. And because I want to. I love my cast mates, I love the language, I love the set, the lights, the music, and the costumes. 

I must do the thing I think I cannot do.

Tonight I give a gift.

Cash only, please.