We have three more shows. As up and down as this whole thing has been, as frustrating, as upsetting … I am going to miss it. What will I miss?
— the last moment of the show, the lights dimming, snow falling, smiling at one another … feeling the audience sitting there STUNNED at what they have just seen … That last moment always works, and I love doing it every night.
— being in Chinatown on a daily basis. I rarely go down there, and I am completely in love with it. Great area of town.
— the great bar staff at Whiskey Nancy, our after-show hangout. Listen to this: they all CAME to see our play. Took their only nights off and trekked over to see their new regulars in a play. Isn’t that beautiful?
— I am going to miss my Mary Agnes costume. I love my costume. I wear a clingy jersey-top, made up of different blocks of orangey-brown colors. It looks great on me, for some reason, and makes my hair look absolutely flaming-orange. Then I wear a long clingy dark grey skirt. Nude hose. A lot of girlie jewelry: green sparkley earrings, a Celtic cross necklace, a silver bracelet, and a Claddagh ring. For shoes I wear brown penny loafers … well, they have the look of penny loafers, except they also have high chunky heels. Very glamorous. Not to be vain or anything, it’s just that it is so rare that I actually LIKE what I get to wear in a show. Usually, I have to ignore the pin-pricks of my own Sheila vanity and say to myself, “Now,what would the CHARACTER wear?” But in this case, Mary Agnes, a student at UCD in Dublin, trying to make an impression on her West-of-Ireland country parents, looks nice. I get to look nice.
— I will miss the set. It is extraordinary. With the small budget that they had, the team created an entire world. It is a beautiful set. It does half our work for us. I walk around on it, looking at things, and it gives me everything I need. Beautiful. Evocative. The little blue and white china plates hanging on the walls, the knick-knack shelf with all of these beautiful little teapots on display … the way they are lit gives them a symbolic feel. The wall paper is busy. Rust-tones. Patterns. A small painting of the Blessed Virgin surrounded by angels over the stove. A busy linoleum floor. Dark rust-red, pale yellow, green blocks of color. It LOOKS like a house in the west of Ireland. And all around the outskirts of the stage, pressing in on the interior, are white drifts of snow.
— I will miss working with Aedin.
However: in my heart, I believe that meeting her is one of the primary reasons I have done this show. Like: things are meant to be. We have already begun talking about working together again.
My parents are coming down tonight to see the show. My sister Siobhan will be there as well. A couple of cousins. A couple of friends. My head is going to explode, trying to handle it all.
