The Diary of Anne Frank--Book Closed

                                                                  

Another show has ended.  Exhausted, hot, still the cleaning up and out to do and Purlie Productions will move forward.  I’m glad the work is over but there is always the letdown and the questioning.  Did it work?  What did people really think?  And most importantly, was the message delivered?

I know there are people in our community who would never really receive the message; they are probably not the ones in our audience.  I learned there was one gentleman whose Christian sensibilities were outraged by the G-D phrase uttered by an angry character in the play; obviously he was the one that didn’t get it.  I know the play was a great experience for the cast, most of whom had not tackled this type of performance before.

Was it worth it?  Financially, it’s doubtful—although at least we didn’t lose money!  Emotionally, physically?  That, of course, is an individual decision.  Every play has its moments of irritability, impatience, and embarrassment (the dropped lines, the lost cat, the mistaken appearance of the cat, the empty cognac bottle……) but it really doesn’t matter in the end.  We will learn from our past mistakes—and make new ones in the future. 

Tonight I feel like I will never again have the energy to tackle a production and continue to question the effort it takes.  However, in all likelihood I will do it again.  I truly believe that change is possible like the eating the elephant joke, one bite at a time. 

The Thank Yous are numerous:  Our Board:  Judy and Lionel Bryan, Mary Lewis, Jimmie Burke, Lamar Deal and Blake Kildow (also our Director); Our Cast:  Tom Strait, Emily Beck, Chris Jeffords, Amara Grace Jeffords, Kenny O’Bara, Joey Timmons, Kim Beck, Julianna Lacefield and Lamar Deal; Our Crews:  Kaytie Jeffords, Sara Setzer, Jerilyn Sweat, Aaron Carver.  Our creative expert/seamstress/prop master Teresa Beck.  Of course, a big thank you to the Okefenokee Heritage Center and Director Sam Ganas for allowing us to live there for the past 6 weeks.

There’s a wide gap between “Wow, this is truly enormous accomplishment!” and “Why do we even bother?” Hopefully I’ll settle down somewhere in the positive middle range.  Feel free to tell us our blood, sweat and tears are worth it!