If you are not a thespian, the infamous hell week (or tech week) is the week before the show opens. Rehearsals are much longer (I usually don't get home until 9:30 or 10:00 PM). It is when pretty much everything is done and you just do full dress rehearsals. You run through the show as many times as you can before it opens and the director gives you notes.
Hell week is when you spend more time with your director and castmates than with your family. It is when you spend more time at rehearsal than at home.
I love hell week because I love theatre. It is fun. I enjoy the long rehearsals of having fun and spending time with awesome people (because honestly, once you hang out with thespians, normal people just aren't as fun anymore). I love hell week because you get to see all elements of the show come together to create the show. All you're doing is touching things up before the finished product goes up in front of an audience.
I love thinking about two months ago, or however long ago you started rehearsals and seeing how far you all have come since then, how much work you've put into this project, how much closer you all have grown by doing this together. Tomorrow will be exactly two months since our very first rehearsal for Once On This Island, and those two months have just flown by.
I'm a senior this year, and I keep getting sad thinking about these things today. It is not my last show-- I am in The Diviners at our brother school (because I go to an all-girls school)-- but it is my last musical, my last show with a lot of these people, and my last show with this director, Mr. Bozanich. He is the best director I know and he has helped me to grow so much in his shows. I'm extremely grateful that I've gotten to work with him these past few years and had amazing experiences and made unforgettable memories because of him.
Before every single performance, Mr. B tells us three things that I will never forget: watch all your firsts, have big fun, and do something that you can be proud to call good theatre. Two weeks from today is closing night. Two weeks from today, I will have heard those words for the last time.
These next two weeks are going to be bittersweet.
