Dear My People,

This is a love letter.
It will be full of sweeping generalizations, but all of them observed over a fair number of years, mind you, not simply theorized:)....

Ahem.
Here is a thing I realized today: I think you are why I'm still in it.
I love creating - *love.* But there are other ways I could create. I have so many ideas; I could pour my energies into writing for the theatre completely in lieu of performing. Writing is one of my first loves. But I stubbornly want to act.

I love the feeling of being in front of an audience, of attempting to thrust yourself into Present Moment after Present Moment. But I don't have much desire to do that alone. I prefer a buddy up there. Or a coupla buddies. Because...that's what you become, so very quickly and, in a weird way, fully. Buddies. I don't think just because we all part once a run is over and maybe don't hang out at all till we work together again...I don't actually think that diminishes anything. I don't think that makes friendship (trust, enjoyment, a form of love) unreal or less real. We makes friends eagerly, like children:). Which makes total sense. And we're passionate about those friends while we're creating with them, and we keep them in our hearts when we're not. I LOVE us for that:). For how soon in a relationship we will hold each other's hands and go to bat for each other and do our damnedest not to judge. The things I have shared in dressing rooms, from ohmygodIthinkI'mpregnant:) to subsequent motherhood difficulties...I am so grateful for that silly, sacred space.

I go through periods of loving our art but near-despising the set-up. In the wrong frame of mind, it can just feel like I have to prove myself over and over (and over...) to keep getting to just do my job. But I have never tired of my people...this mildly insane collection of both introverts and extroverts who love this old ritual and aren't afraid to acknowledge the weird and ugly and beautiful in people and in the world. Or, at least aren't afraid to be afraid.

I think I hang on so I can still be around you all:). I think I hang in there because, god, what a strange and gorgeous group to be part of. What a world my family and I get to inhabit because of you.