I am a Theatre Person

And all that entails.

Even when I get tired of the business of the business, theatre feeds my soul.

One of the things I really miss about New Orleans is that there's a true Theatre Community. Which is good and bad (hard for newbies to break in; can be very cliquish; gets incredibly incestuous when you realize that it's everyone's dating pool as well ... but that's a whole different topic).

But it's a community.

I could show up to any theatre in town and know someone on stage, and probably someone in the audience.

I could show up to any theatre in town and feel certain I'd have someone to grab a drink with afterwards. Or that odds were good I'd be invited to the party.

I miss that.

There are a couple of times I've had that "oh, you're one of us" experiences here in LA.

Once was early on. I went to see Bon's show at The Next Stage (she had directed); and I happened to know two people in the audience! (yes, I only linked to one on purpose.) (A third I met, and I'd get to know - and work with - later!) I'd only been living in LA for a few months, and I randomly went to the theatre alone and found people to connect with. What a joyous feeling!

It really didn't happen again - except for my Ark "home", which is of course ongoing - until this year.

My co-worker Kristi's husband Clark is an actor (you can't spit without finding one of us, right?) and he was doing a show for free at a little actor's studio in West LA. Well, I wanted to support, and you can't beat free, and West LA works for us so ... we went. I had never met him (although when you work with someone long enough, you DO feel like you know their families intimately), nor did I know anyone associated with the production. But after the show I stayed to introduce myself, and it turned out they were having a little wine and a mini-party, and so we had a chance to hang out a bit. We were also introduced to the director, this guy here, and he was incredibly cool (and he and Dick turned out to have people in common). It was very friendly, very "oh you're one of us, please stay a while". I liked it a lot.

But even that didn't compare to our recent journey to PRT (as I wrote about below). After the show, we were walking out, and then Dick doubled back to just tell the director how wonderful her work is. And it is. (This is the second show of hers we've seen, and ... yeah. She rocks.) As it turns out (and this was the first of many coincidences ... if you call them that) that she knows Paul. (Ark's Artistic Director). She immediately invited us to stay for the party.

And then things just got cooler. See, I'm a total geek about working character actors. They are the gods and goddesses of showbiz, to me. So to not only watch this man be Willy Loman for several hours in a theatre as intimate as PRT, but to sit and talk to him for quite some time afterwards ... well ... WOW. I was bouncing off walls. "Are you an actor, too?" he asked me. "Yup," I said. "My condolences."

By now we're well into the party (which really is the cast, a few other PRT people, the Crazy Woman and us)and people are just introducing themselves to us. "Who do you know here?" they'd ask. "No one," I'd say, "we just got to talking and stayed." And they'd hang out with us ... there was a whole "oh, you're theatre people? Then you're cool." Two people in particular were oh-so-awesome ... I laughed so hard that my cheeks were hurting by the time I left. We laughed for HOURS ... it was incredible! Then there was the college student I was offering Life Advice to (ha ha!). And of course, the director herself, who as I said, knew Paul - as it turns out - she was on the board of directors of his theatre company in Phildelphia - a position which she gave up the year before Dick joined that company, way back a million years ago! Small world.

I loved how welcoming they were. Such good, cool people - I look forward to seeing them again some time.