The lights go down- the curtains up,

The lights go down- the curtains up,

We’re standing in the dark,

In a tableau in the silence,

Which deafens us- and Hark!

The overture is starting,

And still we stand there, froze,

Someone coughs in the audience,

Someone else blows their nose.

This just serves to remind us,

As we stand, an ensemble,

That the room, empty an hour ago,

Is bursting it’s so full.

We’ve done this show so many times,

Right in this very place,

Never have we been so concerned,

With acting, use of space,

Projection of our voices,

Singing, blocking and mime,

And covering each other,

As we all are this time.

Backstage the atmosphere was tense,

All were nervous and scared,

Onstage we exude confidence-

You wouldn’t know we cared.

Opening done- we exit now,

But for those still needed,

Those on next changing, chattering,

The rest relax, unheeded.

Then all too soon it’s over,

We take our final bow,

The crowd exit and we wonder,

Oh, what will we do now?

I look at them all, knowing

We won’t be this cast again,

All the times we’ve spent together,

Growing close are at an end.

But I know this, and they do;

That we’ll never forget

The performance, the rehearsals,

All the people that we met.

My friends, my family, my cast,

And all else that they’ve been,

My loves, my life, my heroes,

There’s no word for what they mean.

I’ll remember them forever,

Crave this feeling ‘til I die,

But now the end- and the beginning-

Have arrived with this ‘goodbye’.