The Last Five (12) Years
Recently, I had to face my own age when I attended a revival of a show I originated. It was bound to happen. I was a stage manager for 22 years, during which I worked on many world premieres. I guess a revival was inevitable . . . but I wasn’t ready . . . I still don’t feel old enough to be attending a revival of one of my old shows.
The show was The Last Five Years, and it was a (shocking) twelve years ago when I first Stage Managed the world premiere. It was a wonderful, moving, surreal experience to see it. However, the really odd thing happened after the show, when my old and new worlds collided.
After saying hello to my old pals I stopped in the lobby to tell the lead actor what a wonderful job he did. We were talking in the lobby, and he asked me what show I was doing now. I explained that I quit the business seven years ago and now work for a yarn company, running its branding site. A young woman who was listening to our conversation, very nervously, introduced herself to me. She said she was a Stage Management student and she was a big fan of my work. My knee-jerk reaction was to ask, “Why?” You see, Stage Managers are behind the scenes, and nobody knows them, and they certainly don’t have fans. She explained that she was also a knitter. Ah yes . . . I forgot, standing in the lobby of a theatre and spending time with people from my old life, I forgot. I forgot that there’s a whole other group of people who know me not from theatre, but from knitting – weird. In the context of being in the theatre again, I was not thinking of my new life.
Old work space (Rehearsal room Jersey Boys)
New work space
The next day I was teaching a knitting class. At the end of the class, one of my first-time students said I looked familiar. I explained that she might have seen me on YouTube or on some of the TV interviews I’ve done for the Studio. With each knitting-related place I named that she might know me from, she just said “no”, “no”, “didn’t see it”. Then, almost joking, I said, “I used to be in theatre”. She said, “That’s how I know you! I’m a Stage Manager”.
Weird. Being recognized for knitting in a theatre lobby, and being recognized for theatre in the knitting class.
Funny world.
Me at work – then (with Tripp Phillips)
