War of the Worlds – Opening Night

Opening night of the War of the Worlds was pure magic! When I arrived in the lobby of the Shakespeare theater I was shocked to find the cast had assembled all my blog post sketches on a board in the lobby to share with the audience. I was deeply touched. For once I put away the sketchbook and sat in the front row center to get an up close view of the show. This was the first time I watched the show straight through without the distraction of attempting to sketch. This performance with a full audience had a panicked energy that I had not seen before. All of the actors performed the very physical scenes all out. Everyone was sweating which added a sense of authenticity to the emotions. Certain scenes left me feeling terrified. That feeling lingered.
After the play was finished and the standing ovation had died down, Terry and I were invited back to the green room for a sip of champagne with the cast. I was unbelievably happy and proud of the performers. The cast then went to the Social Chameleon and we all partied late into the night. Joshua and Terry got into a heated discussion on how events portrayed in the play in many ways resembled the emotions and fears generated on September 11th. Joshua actually said he channeled some of those feelings by re watching footage shot on that day of the people, who had to choose between being burnt alive or leaping to their deaths. I stayed at the party to the bitter end, When I finally got home and slipped into bed, thoughts of unfinished conversations and the adrenaline rush of the evening left me unable to sleep. I watched the sun slowly slip into the bedroom and then got up at 7:30 AM to go to a senior center to sketch a writing workshop. The sketch was effortless and had a renewed feeling of humanity.