Every year my school’s musical hits the stage - and causes December to be my most stressful month of the year. It’s a time when my usual insomnia is punctuated by midnight panic attacks - my mind convinced I’ve missed a cue. It’s a time when I can’t take two steps without someone giving me something else to do. By the time the last show ends I barely have the energy to put away the set and equipment.

In spite of all this, it is the best month of the year. Each year I am handed a new script, with a new set of characters to meet, and a new world to explore. Each year I get to watch as this story is transfered from a book to a stage. Quick sketches tossed out on the first read turn into a physical structure - which, sith the help of some lights and paint, transforms the stage into a new world. People I’ve known for years turn into completely different characters under layers of makeup and fabric.

For the first full rehersal - the first time I see the musical, and the only time I can watch it without having anything to do - I turn down the houselights and forget about everything else. Getting lost im someone else’s story, travelling along their timelines rather than my own.

Even after that day, when I already know what is going to happen and I’m sitting infront of the box that is my school’s lighting board, I have to be careful not to lose myself again. If it wasn’t for the switches under my fingers, the constant nattering of other crew members through my headset, and the rush between scenes as I set up for my next cue... I might once again slip out of reality and lose myself in this other world.

~Lauren Rizzotto,
lauren.rizzotto@theguthan.com