Closing night

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, 
As I foretold you, were all spirits and 
Are melted into air, into thin air: 
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve 
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on, and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep. 

William Shakespeare 
From The Tempest, Act 4

Nobody says anything as well as Shakespeare.  I always think of this little passage

at the end of important things.  And it really expresses the feeling of loss at

the end of a production, I think. 

To the cast and crew of "The Wars of 1812":

I cannot tell you all how grateful I am for all your hard work on the play.

Your efforts have been rewarded by lots of appreciative responses to the show.

It was such fun to work with you all.  Thank you so much for the flowers.

They're so pretty. 

You know, as I drove away from the school, I stopped at the sign and took a picture of

"The Wars of 1812" announcement.  I had some doubts about the script, but you guys 

really sold it.  Great actors and production staff can really make a "silk purse out 

of a sow's ear". 

To all you wonderful Grade 12's:

We have had such a run together, haven't we?  Since "The Taming of the Shrew", we've

slugged it out and worked hard and I think we've done great things.  I am so proud of

each one of you.  I hope you will take a few lessons from our little band of theatre 

folk -- about working together, and trying new things, and trusting each other, and

working out problems, and being responsible and taking chances.  I have learned so

much from all of you.

I really appreciated your recitation of "All the world's a stage" together.  You 

sounded so beautiful together and it was so moving that you would think of that at

this point.  Whoever thought of it?

I'm also proud of how well we held it together for the audience.  We smiled bravely

and kept our speeches short and sweet and waited for the curtains to close to blubber!

I remember some of you saying that we shouldn't burden the closing night audience

with our grief and I think we kept to that.

Let's get together for lunch sometime next week.  We still have two months of school

left and I'm still in denial that you won't all audition for whatever we do next!