No Exit isn't an easy play, it's not easy on the actors or the audience and I imagine there's always some trepidation in the theater the night before it opens with people thinking "The audience is going to cut their freaking wrists! Why didn't we just do Fiddler on the Roof?" But, like John Kennedy said, you don't do these things because they're easy, you do them because they're hard. When you do the hard thing, the risks are greater, but so are the rewards -- what you get from this play will overturn, infect, shift, and change you, it spins in your mind and bubbles out of you. I realized that in the faces of the people around me in the audience and the knots of intense conversation in front of the theater and on the sidewalk on the way to the after-party. And in that tumult of applause and flowers and accolades and people draped around Trillian I realized that one of the best things that your partner, your wife, your husband, your significant other can give you is the opportunity to be anonymous every once in a while-- being just some guy in the second row or the person standing by the catering table and watching people applaud the person you love is soul invigorating. To be able to take turns doing that, in whatever form you do it, I imagine, is one of the keys to happiness. I'm very grateful to be in the place I am.
There's an article about Trill & the show & acting & existentialism in Phillyist which you should read.
w/ Eric Scotolati as the valet, Cindy Spitko as Inez, Ken Openaker as Garcin. Set by Paul Khun.
Thanks for the awesome shirt anonymous Interwebz person!)