The party’s over...

Well, it’s all done. Just got home from the closing night party and am exhausted. Of course, I haven’t started packing yet and am leaving tomorrow morning. But first off – my final blog entry.

We had an incredible show tonight. What an audience. I think there were a few returnees – met a few at least. My partner Don was there and hadn’t seen it since right after Christmas and really enjoyed it and thought it had grown a lot. Sad to say goodbye to a lot of folks. Hope to cross paths and work with many of them again.

Trying to think of any particular tidbits to end with. I watched a lot of the second and third acts tonight. I found a little place to watch way above stage right. Great view of the stage and the audience can’t see you.

Hadn’t watched a lot of stuff for a long while and it was fun to see all the new hijinks that were going on. Helen’s scene at the top of the third act just killed me. When you have audiences like we have been having lately, it truly frees you up onstage and some wonderful accidents can happen. Oh yeah, tonight when I was doing my little speech in front of the curtain between Acts 2 and 3, I am supposed to go back through the curtain to check on what is happening and then come back downstage. Well, when I went to go upstage through the curtain, I could not find the opening for the life of me. I kept hitting the curtain, certain that I would find the slit at any second. But to no avail. Finally I decided it couldn’t wait any longer so I squatted down and crawled through the bottom of the curtain. I was freaking out a teeny bit as Amber had just told me recently to be careful when I touch the curtain as she was concerned that the mechanism that drops the curtain would be affected. Thankfully, all went well.

The party was fun. A bit of an English theme so they had shepherd’s pie and trifle. Also, one hilarious moment as Victoria announced that our company had accumulated the most accident reports (the report filled out if anyone is injured during the show) of any show in Arena Stage history. Not exactly something to be proud of but luckily we all made it through the run without anything major. So, everyone put a dollar in a basket with their guess of how many accident reports they thought we had. I was pretty close at 31 but alas Steve Schnetzer won the pot with his guess of 33.

Okay, time to wrap up. Must pack. And sleep. I have so enjoyed blogging during my time here at Arena. Huge thanks to Ann Marie for making it all happen and making my e-mails enter the blogosphere. I have had an incredible time here – Noises Off is a great gift of a play making audiences bust a gut night after night. D.C. is a fab city and I have enjoyed exploring it. And the staff at Arena has been terrific as well. Any last comments or questions, please do it soon. I will check in over the next few days but then I will become Blog History. Thanks for reading and keep supporting the theater. We need you.  

Until the next time,
Lots of love,
Jay

Comments

[Dupont Theater Fan]

Jay:

Congrats on a wonderful show and thanks for giving us all such a great view at what was going on behind the scenes. Here's hoping that Arena brings you all back for a revival of Noises Off as this town needs all the laughs that it can get.

Hope your cats (and your partner) enjoy having you back home.

Jay saw the show about two weeks ago on a wednesday night and thought it was terrific. Hoped to back for another show but couldn't quite make it but if your run had lasted a bit longer would have done I started reading your blog after my first visit and enjoyed that very much too. It is nice to see how much an "outsider" enjopyed the city. I came here many years ago to work on the Hill for about a year and 30 years later i'm still here. When were you on the Sopranos I would like to back an take a look if its one of the DVD episodes. Thanks again for a great show and for the inside look you afforded us. RJG