SLAM!

Broadway Bound

Walking out on those ancient boards, I sense the excitement of the crowd. Adrenaline begins to pulse as my character becomes one with me. We move and talk in tandem, telling the story that must be told between the curtain's rise and fall.

Backstage, I hear the whispers of my character, in my ear. She tells me things that I must know about her life before and aft the part the audience shall know. She guides me through the play's action, giving pointers here and there...until the final curtain call when the audience will start to disappear.

Afterward in my dressing room, I remove my stage make-up and listen to the ghostly voices of all the characters, over time, who have been brought alive in this theatre. They clamour for my attention, wanting so much to live again. I simply smile and listen and acknowledge that they each exist.

As I leave the theatre on that night, I say good night to the characters of the past and pray that one day soon I'll get to bring another one of them back to life the next time I cross the stage.

Every Broadway actor knows that the stage is a haunted place. And that his job is to resurrect for a while a persona who would otherwise remain without substance or a face.