trod the boards

I love the theatre. Not just seeing a play, or working backstage, but the actual, blueprint-able, physical building, theatre.

I feel more comfortable walking along a dark, empty stage than I do navigating the toy-strewn obstacle course of my family room. I've been known to arrive to a show early (when I was actually working in the theatre) enough so that I could wander around the set, just making it all familiar to myself.

I don't know that I can accurately define what it is about the stage that is so special to me. It's more than the any one sensory reaction. More than all five senses together. It's a spark of magic that I feel in my soul. A spark that I don't get from anything else I've ever experienced.

Today I walked about on the large, empty stage at the university which employs me. It felt good. It felt comfortable. As if it's exactly where I belong. And of course I do. I belong in the theatre some how, some way.

I'm sure that I stood a little taller, spoke a little more confidently, and walked with a swagger that comes from ownership of something most impressive.

It was hours ago, but I can still feel the spark inside of me. Is this why I have been able to go as long as I have without working directly in the theatre? Fifteen minutes walking around a bare stage has given me a boost to last six hours, so has ten years of theatre work allowed me to go on for fifteen years of no theatre work (except for an occasional foray in to the amateur world)?

I wish everyone could experience the natural high I get just from being in a theatre.