Blog: Opening Night/Closing Night

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Last Friday night found me heading over to the Oxford House in Bethnal Green, where we of the Lost City Writers were putting on our play All In The Same Boat. I was quite excited because, as stated previously, the dress rehearsal had been BRILLO!

I arrived to find the stage pretty much set up, including an ACTUAL BOAT which had been built especially for the show - it looked GRATE! There was much dashing around, moving things, checking things, and the sort of general pre-show FAFF which I really enjoy. I know how all this sort of thing WORKS, it's EXCITING!

Our official opening time was 7pm, but people started drifted in before then so I sat myself down as part of the DOOR TEAM. I ALSO really enjoy Doing The Door - it's an excuse to be ludicrously DELIGHTFUL with people you don't know, and also to BOSS them around. I like it so much, in fact, that I volunteered to sit outside the door and miss the first half of the show, in case there were latecomers.

I thus only got to see the second half, but COR what a second half it was - everything WORKED, often in ways we, the writers, had not thought of, and I got swept along with the stories. The best bit was actually just after it had finished, when the lights came up and I opened the doors to let people out. I could see everyone SMILING (it was a pretty good sized crowd) and talking about how much they'd enjoyed it. It made me VERY happy!

Next day I was back again for the second, also the CLOSING, night, this time accompanied by The Days Of My Run. We arrived at 7pm to find that I didn't actually need to DO anything - everything was completely under control and ready for action, which I found a bit disconcerting. I stood near the entrance trying to helpfully point people in the direction of the theatre, but felt a bit SPARE!

This did however mean that I saw the whole show this time, helped along by some REFRESHMENT. The cafe and bar at the venue were both CLOSED, so The Measures Of My Optics had suggested that we take along our own BEER! This was an EXCELLENT idea, although I could FEEL half the audience's ears prick up when we opened our bottles, and SENSE their collective MINDS thinking "Where did THEY get drinks from?"

The show was FAB again, different from the night before with different audience reactions, and still a beautiful thing which I was IMMENSELY proud to be part of. My favourite part of the play itself was right at the end, when we reveal What Is Actually Going On. I could feel a ripple of EXCITEMENT go round the audience when everyone realised what was happening, it was lovely!

And then that was that - all done... for now at least. The two previous shows Lost City Writers have put on ended after their first runs, but this one feels like it shouldn't. I think the big difference this time is that it's a single play - the others were PORTMANTEAUS, seperate short plays on the same theme, but this is a single story that we've written together, so it feels like it could EASILY be taken on and done by someone else. We're going to get together sometime soon to talk about what to do - we could send it off to theatre companies, enter it in competitions, or even try to put it on again with the same cast and director. I hope SOMETHING happens anyway, it feels too good to have it's first and last ever performances on the same weekend!

posted 15/11/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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