Human beings are adaptable. We can get used to anything. Sometimes, we are pushed to the extreme. Sometimes, we go places we’ve never gone before. We’re not happy about it but we have to do it.
A pandemic.
We watch the TV and we are shocked. We are being asked to stay home. One of of us goes out on a daily basis. Wearing a mask. To get our groceries and other things that we need. We disinfect. We wash our hands.
We pray.
It goes on for a long time. We watch things wither and almost die. We forget how to interact with other people. We can’t see faces behind masks. We don’t know when faces are smiling. We get used to that too.
And, then it eases up. Prayers are answered. Scientists work overtime. They come up with vaccines that can bring us back to normal. Some of us take them. We don’t know when things will change. But, they eventually do.
Stores closed. Other businesses survive through sheer brilliance of thinking outside the box. Slowly, doors open and the brave go forth to spend their money face to face.
Other businesses that flourished during normal times falter.
Like theaters.
Theaters. Make believe. Grownups pretending to be other people. Stories that need to be told. Through song, and improv and dance. It’s not important is it? Oh, but it us. Theater is magic. Theater is make believe. Theater is bed time stories that will never be forgotten.
Human beings thrive on stories.
Theater was almost forgotten.
The sickness was waning. I’d already gotten the shots that gave me permission to be a part of society that didn’t really exist anymore.
The phone rang. I was asked to audition for a show. This show should draw enough attention to save a theater that was hurting from being shut down for over a year. The audition would be over zoom. The world was going to open up again because of the magic of scientists. This theater would be ready.
The show?
Nunsense.
A show that consists of five nuns. Nuns that hold the deity as their number one concern. They are funny. They are adept at holding the audience in the palm of their hands with their gentle humor.
They are the perfect characters to gently take an audience out of the depths of a pandemic.
Brilliance is needed here. A director with the sheer guts and will to do this in a month. A month? That is when the venue is available. A director with the passion and the sheer will to make this happen is needed. I happen to know and love this woman as my best friend.
She called and I auditioned.
I have no false ego about my talents. But, nobody……nobody gets to play Sister Amnesia around here but me. Amnesia is me. I am her. She wears me out. But, each and every time she is needed……..I am willing.
A month is not a long period of time.
But, let me tell you what a month can bring you.
An audition over zoom because people couldn’t be in the same room. A first rehearsal………where all performers have been vaccinated. The first time I walked into a room and saw full faces in over a year. It was weird. It was wonderful. It was spectacular.
Nearly nightly rehearsals….where songs and dialogue and movement were shoved into our heads. It made us dizzy. We lived our daily lives singing under our breath. We practiced lines on our cats and dogs. We practiced dance steps at the end of our driveways when we went to our mail boxes.
Our world changed around us while we were so busy. Mandates were lifted. Faces were visible at the grocery store.
A huge sigh wafted throughout our local world.
Opening night came. A soft summer evening under a big tent. Dinner was served. Bartenders performed wonders. Music filled the air ……..and five nuns took to the stage to perform their magic.
Someday I’ll be too old to bounce around on a wooden platform. Someday my knees will aggravate me too much to dance. Someday my voice will falter.
I kind of thought that day had already come.
Until, I was asked to come out of a pandemic. To try to be Sister Amnesia once again. My favorite character out of dozens I have played over the years. Sister Amnesia……..full of love and hope. Full of innocence and faith in the future.
Sister Amnesia……….the perfect character to call me back to being me.
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