The Lights Go Dim

Many of you know how much I love the theatre and, more specifically, that second as the lights go dim. It’s all about anticipation. You’ve been waiting for this moment and this is when the show begins.

It all began with another evening at the theatre. There were many of them in my youth. We had season tickets to Pioneer Memorial Theatre Company in Salt Lake City. Tangent Alert! We always sat in the front row of the balcony at Pioneer and we went so often that we had one guy that we always looked for. He sat on the groud floor, just below us, if we were to look over the edge. He had a shock of white hair and, apparently, no comb. We called him "bed-hair guy" and he never missed a show. OK, tangent's done. Sometimes, we had season tickets for Utah Opera too. I can’t remember the evening that Grandfather first told me the story, oddly enough, but the tale itself has been burned on my brain forever. He said there was an old radio show that was recorded in a theatre off Times Square and every broadcast started with the phrase, “And the lights go dim in the little theatre off Times Square.” Every time after that, he would lean over to me and whisper that as the lights went down. Now, we both murmur it.

That second of suspension is one thing when you’re in the audience, another when you’re waiting to go on stage, and quite another when you’re the one controlling it. I came to this realization recently. I had been stage managing for a while before I figured out that I had been IN CHARGE of hundreds of those moments. I had made them happen! Wow! Such power!

Years ago, that second was a surprise. Cause for a quickening of my heart and sitting up a little straighter in my seat. Now, it’s all about fading out the pre-show music, bringing up the light for Sean’s curtain speech, and switching the CD’s for the first music cue. I have way too much to do to really cherish it. Unless, (this is just coming to me now), maybe that moment is stretched out for me now. It’s the length of the show. Two hours of quickening heart and sitting straight in my seat. It’s just as vivid, just as inspiring.

And the lights go dim in the little theatre off Hollywood Way…