Opening Week Done

Hello all,

I'm proud to say I made it through opening week. I just kept counting down to Friday, because I knew I had the day off and would be able to sleep in late. It made a difference, but I'm still tired and probably will be until the end of the show. I will take the next two days to try and recover before it starts all over again.

It didn't hit me until right before I went on that "Oh my God, this is for real. I'm in a play." I tried not to think about it most of the week and even when I was driving to the city for rehearsals, it still didn't seem like a big deal. That feeling changed when I stepped on stage. Theater is a big deal and the ability to hold an audience's attention and tell a story is exhilarating. I was nervous and kept going over my lines off stage, but once I stepped onto the stage I was Joyce Cheeks, in Halifax, North Carolina.

The cast has come together nicely and I am proud of all of us. Truth be told we still miss a line here and there, or a cue, but wereally pick up for one another when it counts. I look forward to the next two weeks of performances, because I believe we will get stronger with each show. Each time I perform I feel something different and I react different which helps keep the character fresh for me and hopefully the audience.

This has been a wonderful experience and I am so glad to have this opportunity. It's going to stay with me for a long time and I believe it will help me in my writing and hopefully maybe lead to other opportunities on the stage. As good as I feel today, I do have to report a few drawbacks of my experience (they have nothing to do with the great cast and crew).

On Saturday, after I left the theatre I went to my car and found it not there. It was towed. I couldn't believe it. Thank goodness for my girlfriend Catherine, who has agreed to let me stay with her during rehearsals and some nights during the run of the show. She picked me up at 96th Street and Broadway. The next day I had to pay a whopping $185 to get my car out of the impound, plus I have an additional $110 ticket for a parking violation. I'm so mad at myself because I always park on 38th, but this time I decided to park on 39th (just so I would be in the direction I wanted to head to the car wash on the West Side), thinking it had the same parking rules as 38th Street. Boy, was I wrong and it's going to cost me. I thought about protesting the ticket, but it's not worth my time or the gas going to traffic court in Brooklyn, NYC. I will chalk it up as a lesson learned and try not to think about the fact that my towing fees and fines could have been a mini-vacation somewhere or been spent in a more useful way for me.

With all that said, I still look forward to this week's run. I have some friends coming to support which makes me feel really good yet nervous. Friends can sometimes be the toughest critics. Oh well, I'll just focus on hitting my lines and doing the best job I can. Everything that went wrong for me this weekend is in the past. I just need those checks to clear so I can forget my parking problems ever happened.