Tonight we performed the last show of our run of “The Tempest”. As with every play/film/project I do, the ending is bittersweet. Part of me is happy to be done and to move on to new exciting things and part of me is sad that it’s over. This profession is so strange in that you tend to form relationships very quickly and sometimes intensely. You become a family during the course of the project and then you all go your separate ways when it’s all over. If you’re lucky, you stay in contact with at least a few of them and even more rarely you end up with some actual friends.
There’s always a bit of a let down when I’ve finished a band gig, play, or film. While I’m performing I am so perfectly in my element and fell like I’m doing what I was put here to do. Then it ends, the applause dies down, the audience disappear and I carry my things back to my car and drive home alone. It’s such a dichotomy. One moment you are the center of attention to a large group of (hopefully) adoring people and the next you are alone. I’ve always found it a bit of a strange feeling but at the same time you bask in the high of the performance you just gave.
After posing the question of whether I should shave off the facial hair I grew for the show, I decided tonight that I needed to shave it, at least for the moment. I needed the change. I needed to symbolically cast off my character. Besides, at the rate my beard grows, I could have it back in a few weeks, so really no big deal. I snapped this pic because I felt it really symbolized the moment. Fresh from the shower, eyeliner washed off, face clean shaven, I have cast of Sebastian into the many roles of my past.
