Et spiritui sancto 
"And to the holy spirit" 
To sing divine music 
Feels sacred 
Even if Handel and I 
Don't worship the same deity
To sing in harmony with 100 other voices 
To provide the song for dancers to move their bodies 
To know my dear friends are in the audience 
To be gifted the most beautiful bouquet of flowers 
To feel seen and appreciated
To be a part of it all 
​Absolute bliss 

Rehearsal at the theatre
Even standing at the back of the stage
Behind a scrim
In a chorus of 100 people 
Looking out onto the seats
It feels like home
I watch the dancers
I miss dancing
How long has it been since I put on some music and 
Just danced with abandon? 
Remembering the Christmas concert in 1998
It was outdoors 
(Australian Christmas) 
I danced to the orchestra and 
There was a full moon
Another lifetime now 
I miss performing 
I miss a time when it wasn't so wrapped up in 
The Business of Show 
Headshots, and pay-to-play, and agents and competition 
Instead, just telling stories 
And making music 
And moving with my body
And singing songs because they're fun to sing 
And doing theatre 
​Because it's home. 

What a joy and a luxury 
To see such a gorgeous sumptuous opera 
The way Zeffirelli paints on the stage 
Using bodies and sets
And splashes of color 
The way a soprano's voice can float across the hall 
All the way into the gods 
What it feels like to watch over a hundred people
Lift their hands to the sky together 
Puccini's soaring score 
Resonating in my bones 
Remembering Abuela playing the music 
Thinking of her
And how much she would love this 
How thankful I am
For the gift of
Enjoying opera

A big group of high school kids
From somewhere America
Visiting NYC and Broadway
Possibly for the first time
Getting them all seated took a lot of energy
But then the show started
And an electricity filled the house
The way they all leaned forward in their seats
The way they cheered when the actors came out on stage
The way one girl gasped and held her hands to her mouth when Lilias started singing
(Tony winner Lilias White! A queen!) 
Seeing their minds being opened and transformed 
​In the moment
The best kind of education

Right before intermission
I was standing down near the front of the house
Two sisters, maybe 10 years between them, the younger one clutching the older one
The younger one grinning from ear to ear
Breathless with joy at what was transpiring on stage

During intermission
A lovely couple from Baltimore
Celebrating the husband’s birthday with a week away in NYC,
Kid free and seeing as much theatre as they could cram into 5 days

Toward the end of the show
I was standing in the back of the house
Two more sisters in the back row
Older than the first pair
One of them had those giant headphones over her ears
At random intervals she would raise her hands up in the air like she was on a rollercoaster
Her sister would join her, smiling
The eyes of the first sister set intently on the stage
Taking in every single detail

And then during walkout
Two young friends, barely 20
Giddy with joy
“We’ve been saving to see our first Broadway show!”
It was everything they’d hoped and more
Their genuine delight at being handed a “My First Broadway Show” sticker

This is why we do theatre
It’s not about the union contracts or the insanity of auditions or the constant hustle
It’s the communion of joy
Of heartbreak
Of loss and longing
And starting again
It's the telling of stories
And seeing our selves
Real, imagined, fantastical
Before our very eyes. 

Your dear friend Jonathan
Invites you on a backstage tour of the Met Opera
And there is a couple from London
And a lady from San Francisco
And together you explore the bowels and backstage
Of one of the most iconic operas in the world
It is thrilling and beautiful
And smells like paint and dust
And even though you’ve been in theatre your whole life
The grandness of it
The scale of it
Takes your breath away
The hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of workers scurrying around   
The costumers
The wig makers
The carpenters
The metal-smiths
The stage hands
The education officers
Not to mention the singers and dancers and chorus members and children
And you get a tiny glimpse of the costumes up close
And the sumptuousness of the fabrics
The detail of the stitches
The way costumes are re-made and refashioned and refitted
The way the set pieces are rolled in and out
And stored in the air
And the history of it all
Tracing back hundreds of years to opera houses in Europe
Even the very walls in the house can trace their origins back to a single grand tree from a forest in London
The history of art and music and
Story telling and luxury

Dear Me
You’re singing in a chorus
With Kelli O’Hara
And Jason Robert Brown is playing the piano
And in you’re in a beautiful room of a historic NYC building
And it’s not a dream
But a dream come true
And it’s overwhelming and wonderful and exiting and exhausting and thrilling all at once

​What a thrill to see
Hansol Jung’s new play at the
New York Theatre Workshop
The utter delight of a well written play that is
Belly laugh funny
Heart achingly biting
Edgy yet comforting
The joy of outstanding performances
Under clever direction by Leigh Silverman
Satisfying, thrilling, phenomenal play going

Thankful to Debbie and Debbie for
The chance to meet Frank Rich and
Seeing Michael Feinstein in concert at
Carnegie Hall
A truly wonderful New York day

​How special to have Ralph and Amelia there
How wonderful to be able to celebrate after
I don’t want it to end