ALBA @ de Regentes

STAGESOFWAITING

part one

by Florestan Korp

Stages

Keep your distance,be silent,be calm

be friendly.

Thirty minutes before the curtain rises for the premier of the young and energetic production of “Mammoet”, a so called voicemail opera, even I start to get nervous.

The last rehearsal was not as good as the one I had seen before, the first one felt better in timing. Maybe because it had been my first time seeing it - so modern, so loud.

Then we go downstairs.

After the first burst of adrenaline accompanied by increasingly hushed laughter, the basement settles into the silence of the last twenty minutes.

In between the sighs and the whispers the sound of the fridge grows into a deafening drone. Doors are closed, toilets flush and last bits of song fly through the air.

You will not get a picture of people waiting alone. Now, at the point where it becomes real and the theory ends, I feel my limit.

This thought weighs just as heavy on my chest as the ceiling above me and the darkness of the stage over that. Now I felt unprepared and nervous as if I would have to stand infront of 100 people and wouldn’t know what to say.

Then I tell myself: “You are just here to observe and tell a story. Relax. Concentrate.”

We’re opening! Floor ready? Ja? Neeeee! Lekkere volle zaal. Spelers klaar? Techniek klaar? Tension rises as the first people enter and get seated.

A wall of noise builds behind me just to drop into sudden silence. I’m in the front row and want to experience that which the actors, the director, the writer and the stage designer have been working for so hard to achieve first hand.

Let the magic begin.