Sleeping Dragon

I was a sleeping dragon, I cast myself out to sea,
I was a dreaming damsel, the Hermit hung on the door.
But now I am awake, returned from my long journey,
I have found my dreams are real and I am ready for more.

If I could tell you how I felt, how I truly felt, about this weekend and the performances, it might sound incredibly sappy or insincere, and I don't want it to. But I'll try to express how I felt.

When I finished up production on my show The Difference Between Running and Leaving, I could feel and see the future laid out before me. Not specifics, but I knew that theater would be in my life and that things would pan out. I knew that I would see another show go up, and many more, in the future. I felt like all was right with the world, with my place in the pattern of it. I felt that I knew what I was doing was right. I felt connected to all the other me's in the future that would feel this again and again.

And Sunday night, I felt it again. I knew that I was in line with my self-made fate. I just knew. I never want to forget what that felt like, because that feeling of seeing something I wrote on stage, and collaborating with such amazing and talented people, working hard to bloom a wonder, that feeling is my drug. I am an addict. I'm jonesing now, but I feel it all at hand. Writing is my drug.

The support! So many of my friends and family came. I mean, my sisters drove up from D.C. and down from New York to come. My mother flew in from Puerto Rico. My best friend Becky came from Boston. My friend Rachel drove from New Jersey. My New Haven friends took the time to come--Marty, Andi, Randolph, Barry (who walked from Rudy's in that horrible cold), Pat, Kirsten, Kate, Dee, Flick. Becky's parents came from Shelton. Lenny's mom came from Maine. Friends from work--Gammy, Kim, Evelyn--all came. My neighbors--Tammy, Dana, Tom and Fran--came out. The gratitude I feel in my heart is endless. They will never know what it means to me.

And the cast and crew. Dana really understood my show and directed it beautifully. Jocelyn was the cutest stage manager ever. Maria was amazing. There's no words for that. Jeremy was dead on. Rob and Susan stepped up to the plate. I don't have words. I really don't.

Lenny was a support and a lover and a friend and just perfect. He had tears in his eyes and told me how proud he was.

Sunday night, the cast called me to the stage and I took my bow. My bow.

This weekend was amazing. Thank you everyone.

Click here for photos from the performance on February 10, 2007 (Click here for slideshow)
Click here for photos from the performance on February 11, 2007 (Click here for slideshow)