Holly: Oh, I'm NOT perfect, huh?

I'm doing sound and light boards for a show ("Our Lady of South Division Street", by Tom Dudzick) at Penguin Rep in Stony Point, NY, and last night I messed up a cue. I thought I hit both the space bar on the sound board keyboard with my left hand and the GO button on the light board with my right, but the lights didn't go out as they were supposed to. The stage manager said, again, into my ear through my headset, "LIGHTS" and then I hit the GO button and the lights went out.

There was perhaps a 3-second delay...which felt like 10 minutes. However, the world did not stop spinning. The show went on, and the audience applauded at the end and loved it.

My heart was beating very fast. Adrenaline pumping. Negative self thoughts started, and I just stopped them. As my stage manager says, we're not researching cancer here. It's a show. It's all okay. She actually called the cue a nano-second late. I hit the button late. When the lights came on again, the crew had forgotten to put a necessary prop in its place, probably causing adrenaline overload in the two actors on stage. Hey, it's live theater folks. Both actors covered the mistake so well I doubt if anyone in the audience even noticed. That's thinking on your feet. 

I really like the fact that, no matter how many times you've done a show, you can still mess up. There is no such thing as perfection. And that's a great lesson!