The show that I've been a part of for the last few months, Little Women, had its last performance today. Endings are harder than beginnings. Beginnings can creep up on you unawares so that you're in the middle of things almost before you know they've started, but there's no getting around endings.
No, it is over now, the theater empty and the sets dismantled. They are gone, the characters that lived here. They are dead; no, not dead, but shut away, locked in memories of long nights and brilliant evenings. We shall not meet them thus again, not the way they were here, so alive that they kindled the stage with fire and burnt the air with passion. We were permitted a while to share their joys and sorrows, their loves and dreams; we lived with them in a dream, returning to their world day after day till it became a second life, a second home. Now at length the last curtain has fallen, and our time here has come to an end. Hence we know them as dreams only. We look forward now to new days and new dreams. But we shall keep the friends we made here. We shall keep the memories we made here. We shall keep the lives we lived here. As dreams they shall remain, a fire within us, through all our days of plenty.
As the days pass I will probably post more about the show itself. I already have some stuff written down, and we got plenty of photos from rehearsals, behind-the-scenes, and performances. (Most of the photo credits, by the way, including the one above, do not belong to me. They're all thanks to various friends in the audience and backstage.)
