UNDERSTUDY RUNTHROUGH

I was so nervous last night, I kept waking up in the middle of the night reciting lines from H & M. I was as scared as I have ever been in my life. I never knew how daunting a task understudying could be. Our runthrough was a great success - in fact better than I ever could have imagined since it was the first time all the understudies got to do the show completely. There were no trainwrecks, and the show went pretty smoothly - and I was very happy & relieved to hear from everyone that I did a good job. Fellow castmates Ricky, Elvy and Daniel were in the audience giving us support. Daniel Marcus is my new hero. I was petrified of performing in front of him (since I stole 99% of his performance) but he was so sweet & very encouraging. My fellow understudies were awesome - Andrew, Vivian, Zoe, Ryder & Mary (who did kick-ass double duty understudying two parts!) Even though it was scary at first, the rush of adrenaline kicked in after my first scene and soon after I stopped being nervous and started having fun. I had a ball performing the Uncle Victor/Harold military scene with Ryder - and the hysterical song "Rat-a-tat." We have two more rehearsals left - to clean up whatever needed fixing from the runthrough but overall I feel very good about the work we have all done.

I stayed to watch the evening performance and It was wonderful to see what everyone is doing with their characters - the show just keeps getting better and better. Even though I have seen the show numerous times I am always deeply moved by it. Tonight I was especially attentive to the audience's reactions - like the couple next to me would hold hands at tender moments or in the next row - I could see a lady wiping away her tears during Pamela's beautiful rendition of "The Chance To Sing." Ah, how I love live theatre.