Encore

I went to the theater last night.

One-act plays, ranging from decent to amazing.  Talked theater a little bit with the directors of the third (I was there as their son’s arm candy), and it was nice.  I hadn’t realised how much I’ve missed it, and greeting the actors coming from backstage felt odd; I’m used to coming out of that door, not waiting for it to open.

Thing is, I have a fair bit of theater experience and background.  Haven’t done it in YEARS, but started young; the person who has, perhaps, known me longest in my life now met me when I joined a (religious!) acting troupe he was in the instant I hit the age requirement of 13.  I managed to letter and pin in Drama in high school, was involved in a lot of extracurricular things, did Haunted Forest in Norfolk, some set work for community theater, etc.  I’ve been onstage and backstage and even directed (God help me), makeup and some costuming and some special effects.  And now I’m having to firmly remind myself that I do NOT have the time or the schedule to get involved again at this point in my life, no matter how much fun it always was.  Theater requires being able to get to rehearsals, and with my alternating schedule and two kids that’s notsomuch on the happening.

And the funny thing… I feel like another part of Me came Home.  Things that had been out of my life for a decade or more are coming back to me now…  goth/club scene, SCA/Pennsic, a certain subculture I won’t name here but REALLY missed, theater… all of these things are showing back up in my life, and I feel happier and more content and more Me.  And it’s funny… some of these things I know people would never associate with me, or may have thought they knew me well but never knew about, or knew about but didn’t register how deeply things run for me.  But they’re all part of my history, and part of me, and part of what makes me happy.