A Note from the Director...
Friday, March 13th 2020, we held what would be our final in person rehearsal in the DHS Little Theatre for not only The Crucible, but for more than the next year. When we said goodbye to each other, we were told to go home and socially distance for two to four weeks, and then we hoped to return to finish our work on Arthur Miller's masterpiece. But theatre's everywhere closed and two to four weeks became two to four months which became more than a year.
In that year a lot happened to all of us. Some of us were challenged to say goodbye to a dear loved one or friend. Others were challenged to take a long hard look at themselves and seek out a better person. In the theatre world we learned we take our time on the stage for granted. When we were forbidden to return to the stage, for a lot of us, it was like being forbidden from oxygen. But we did what we could with what we had and began planning to perform Andrew Cariani's Almost, Maine because of its simplistic beauty. We rehearsed on Zoom from October through January and then began postponing our actual performances, a few weeks at a time.
Monday, March 29th, 2021 is a day I will never forget. I walked into the theatre, moved around the remaining set pieces from The Crucible that never happened and waited for the arrival of two of the cast members of Almost, Maine. When they arrived I fought back tears because I hadn't seen them in a year. I spent three years watching them grow on a daily basis, but then did not see them in person for the next year. They had grown so much. We were all masked, so we couldn't see each other's faces, but I know we were all smiling. And then, we ran one of Andrew Cariani's scenes for the first time in person, and the tears came back because for the first time in over a year, we felt normal.
Thank you so much for supporting our theatre department by buying a ticket to our production. We have missed you so much and look forward to entertaining you in person real soon.
Chris Nelson
DHS Theatre Director
