Life Is Not A Journey
Life is an adventure, not a journey. A journey focuses on where you will eventually end up and we can’t live like that. The great Jaques Brel once said, “You have to make mistakes, be reckless and crazy. Even if it is impossible. Especially, if it is impossible”.
Simon and I have done just that. We got back on our feet and attempted the impossible. We set up a new theatre company, auditioned a new actress and procured a new director. We put on a show, with only a week and a half’s rehearsal. We lived with strangers and we parted, great friends.
There were so many times that we could have given up and decided to play it safe. I remember telling Amy, when Simon called me, thinking things were collapsing around him. I remember telling her about the theatre venue we found and our first tentative steps of being captain of our own ship. She never told me, we were being ridiculous or reminded us about the time and money that we could lose. She listened… and squealed about how ‘cool’ it all was.
On the 9th July 2015, it was time to test the waters, to see if it would all pay off. I felt Amy’s absence, deeply. I wished she could have been there. I wished I could have told her all about it. I wished I could have shown her the review and told her how right she was about Filipa. But there is no point in thinking of what she will never do, we can only focus on what she achieved.
Baymax stayed in the dressing room, like a diva, overlooking the beauty of the Peak District. Of course, I was nervous, but I had faith. Two shows down and we have had incredible reviews:
We did a performance of a few songs from the show at Fringe Sunday, in front of hundreds of people and the HEAD of the Fringe, stood up before the show and told the crowd how great we were. He urged everyone to come see us! That was just incredible. We’ve also potentially been offered a really big opportunity, in the next year, which would be truly amazing, if it played out.
We needed to realise, that what happened earlier in the year, wasn’t the beginning of the end. To borrow words from another great, Winston Churchill, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.“
We have been blessed, not only with two new cast and crew members, but with two great friends. Being as introverted and antisocial as I am, living and working with two complete strangers, was my idea of hell. I was convinced that I was going to spend two weeks, locked up in my bedroom. Yet, every minute was a blast and now they’re away for our little break, in between shows - we really miss them.
Life is not a journey and every sunset, does not signify an end to a day. It is only the beginning of a new one.
