The curtain's finally up!

For those of you who know anything about Buffalo Theatre and the multitude of venues the city has to offer, you know that a grand season opener is a big deal (for the theatres and theatre-goers at least.) Well, this past Friday was the official Curtain Up! here in the Queen City and I have to tell you that I'm happy it's over.

Although we theatre-trash consider Curtain Up! the official "new year", it does get a bit tedious in preparation. Ideally (and usually) each participating theatre officially opens their season the night of CU. All curtains rise at 8:30 (preceded by a huge gala dinner on the stage of Shea's Performing Arts Center) and the evening is concluded with a big street party in the theatre district. As you may imagine, it's a stressful time.

Now, on a personal level, those who work full-time in a professional theatre AND choose to star in a production have an even more stressful experience. You see...it's not the best decision. Especially taking into consideration that one can not be in two places at one time. Let me demonstrate how my CU went: I woke up, picked up my Grandmother and drove her to work with me. We worked until 3ish and then I drove her back home. After a brief nap, I got up, showered, shaved, and drove back into the city to pick up my co-star and the musical director for my show. Then, after performing, dropped my co-star and musical director off at their desired locations, drove back to my workplace (The Kavinoky Theatre), changed into my tuxedo, and joined the cast at their opening night party. Immediately afterwards, Jamie, Geoffrey and I drove to Studio Arena Theatre for Artvoice's "King and Queen of Curtain Up!" celebration. I played the question and answer game to see if (once again) I would be crowned King (or Queen). I wasn't. We had a drink or two and then drove home. This sort of scenario has been and will continue to play out for the next three weeks...(without the whole King and Queen thingy, of course!)

Now...this doesn't sound too bad, right? I mean, everybody has a job and if they're in a show it does add significant strife to their psyche. Perhaps I just wanted to vent. Perhaps I feel guilty that I'm not exclusively at my theatre. Perhaps I just want sympathy. It's ridiculous.

The most important thing...and the reason that we all do what we do...is that the curtain is finally up and Buffalo's Theatre season is, once again, officially underway!