For me, performing is a high. I don’t even get nervous anymore, which is a great gift of age. By the time I get to the performance stage, I am at the point that I don’t have to think too, too much about what my next line is, or where my right foot is supposed to be (unless it’s the Act 1 finale, in which case, I just make sure Bizzy is about one foot in front of me and off to the left so I can watch her, without watching her, you know what I’m saying?), and I can just flip over into right-brain out-of-time happiness.
And, by the way, I highly encourage you to find the thing that does that for you (maybe you have already. If so, you understand what I’m saying ya?) because it’s a wonderful place to be.
Of course, coming down from that high is another story altogether. I miss the music, I miss the cast, I miss making harmonies with a large group of people, I miss making people laugh. I miss it all. Plus, I’m just plain old garden variety exhausted. This show was in particular hard to come down from because I had a bunch of real-world stuff to deal with that got legitimately put in limbo while I did the show that then had to be, you know, dealt with.
Still, it always seems to take a longer time to recover from this than my left brain thinks it should. Because here it is, in the third week since the show closed and I’m still tired. I have to remember that my left brain has very little to do with it, because while my body and right brain were performing, it was having a nice little vacation. If my creative self (and that includes my body) needs a little fallow time, then I have to let it take as much time as it needs. My left brain can handle things in the meantime.
So, if you talk to me in the next little while, and I seem a little dull, that’s only because my creative self is off in a hammock somewhere snoozing. Shhhhh.
Tentative Equinox North
Tentative Equinox 
Oh, I can totally relate. I am at the beginning of rehearsals, and I get all tingly when we are singing together, even when it’s not quite right yet. :) I was at rehearsals last night, in fact, and by the end I just couldn’t stop smiling. I love it SO MUCH. (it helps that G&S were musical/lyrical geniuses!)
We don’t actually perform until November, and I’m already dreading the ‘downer’ after the show ends. This is why I plan on always being involved with productions — even as an old lady in the back chorus line — as much as possible. It’s addicting, it’s exhausting, it’s fulfilling, it’s scary, it’s wonderful.
Ah, sorry. :) Got carried away there!
Are you planning on doing a winter show?
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And that Act 1 finale! Holy cow. It takes 20 minutes to sing that sucker through. And then the next day you can’t get it out of your brain “With Strephon for your foe no doubt, a fearful prospect opens out, and who shall say what evils may result in consequence” Over and over and over again. Wonderful and crazy-making at the same time.
I’m just going to see what auditions come up that are appealing and not too far away from home. I’m very grateful to my family for giving me the time and space to do these, but I can’t do it year-round, especially since I’m still in the minor leagues and need to do other stuff to earn money.