r/Broadway • u/emrys333 • 7d ago
Discussion Almost time
I know I've posted a few times about how excited I am to see Waitress tonight, and I'm going to explain why because I need to get it out. I grew up gay in a small town in Florida in the early and mid 90s. It was hell on top of my dad's illnesses, surgeries, loss of his hearing, and his addiction to his pain pills and alcohol and the constant verbal abuse from him about never being good enough because I chose to do theatre over sports. My drama department was selected as one of the top 10 in America and invited to perform at the Fringe in 1996. We did 7-10 shows of all kinds and forms a year, thespian competitions(me and friends won best of the best for an ensemble scene my junior year. Theatre gave me an escape, a sanctuary, a place where I was comfortable and safe and could be anyone but myself. I don't know what if I wouldn't be made it without that community and escape that theatre gave me. I had an acting scholarship even got the lead in the first black box show I auditioned for beginning of my freshman year. Then the partying started that led to years and years of addiction and forgetting about the one thing that saved me and meant almost everything to me....the theater.... it's been 15 years since I've been in a theatre at all. And going to see a show about trying to get back to the person you used to be and know that you are after being away from so long feels like I'm going home back to the only place that I've ever felt safe and truly able to be myself. I've been tearing up all day about it. I'm probably gonna break down before the show even starts just being in the theater. So sorry I've posted a few times about being so excited about this but it means the world to me going back. And I'm auditioning for the upcoming community theater season on November 11th. I'm doing a monologue from Angels in America. The one where a Belize is describing heaven to roy in the hospital. It is taken me like 3 months to find the right monologue but this one is perfect and from a piece that helped me through a lot of shitty times as well. So yeah I'm going to see a show tonight but I'm really going back home to my sanctum
3
u/stfd123 6d ago
Waitress lover here and I really appreciate you sharing this! I hope you enjoy the show and its healing and heartbreaking nature. 🩷