Mac N Cheese

I picked up a shift today for the last preview of Freestyle Love Supreme. First day at a new job. We entered the theatre through the stage door.

WHAT.

I'm the person who waits outside the stage door for autographs. I don't go inside. I'm not allowed. I'm not worthy. I went inside, and there was the stage. The lights were blue. THAT WAS THE STAGE. 

This is my life at the moment. Wow.

Most of the others on the team were performers. I introduced myself as a writer. It feels strange, like I'm playing pretend, but I'm not pretending. I do write. I have a short film in post production.

WHAT.

This is real. This is my life now. I took the train to get here from my apartment. I hung out in Times Square before the show. I helped load in people into a theatre. Then I got to stay for the show.

THIS IS WHY I MOVED HERE.

Then the show itself was impressive. The segments aren't short like Whose Line Is it Anyway. They get a lot of detail from the audience, make the interactions entertaining, and then they rap it out.

During a segment called Truth (I don't know if that's true, it just makes sense to me), the word from the audience was mac and cheese. Each rapper then told a true story centered around the word:

1) Dude's kids were in the audience. They just moved to NY from SF. He talks about how much he loves them how they went to Serendipity 3 and ate mac n cheese before the show. Aww father feels.

2) Homegirl raps about her dad's mac and cheese recipe. Aww daddy daughter love.

3) Homie can't eat mac and cheese and other things because his health changed after having covid twice and long covid. He was SO VULNERABLE on stage. His heart was hanging out for all of us to see. He let us see that. And he RHYMED while telling the story, even in parts where you can tell it was a struggle to share.

I was in awe. I was in awe of how much I appreciated hearing his tale. I was so happy he was sharing his story and feelings because I wouldn't have known otherwise. Thank you for telling that story. It was truly touching.

That's why art is so important. Stories need to get told and then you never know who you might touch along the way.

I asked my coworker if it was this emotional at other shows. She said no this was new. I wasn't ready for it! But it was amazing.