Opening engagements

Posted May 12th, 2003 by Sean Williams

The unexamined life is not worth living, I am told, but these last few days have been beyond description. I can give you a quick recap.

– Friday I found out that my show opening for Saturday was cancelled. That’s right, cancelled. They cancelled opening night. Because the set sucked. There is a casualness to what other people may think that is so refreshing with this theater, they will do what they want when they want it, they will give you a great play when it is great and no sooner. But seriously, cancel opening night? The show must go on, unless it isn’t as good as it could be with another week of rehearsal? Amazing. They didn’t even rehearse us the night we were supposed to open, we got the night off.

– Saturday, I asked Jordana if we could just spend the day together, the two of us, for my birthday. I wanted us to just go have some fun. We went to the Upper West Side for breakfast and candy and then walked through the park down to the Empire State Building. Once up there, I asked her to marry me and she said yes. I don’t know what I can say about that. I’m sure I’ll think of something soon, but right now I can’t think of anything.

– Sunday we did the show in front of a small invited audience, mostly mothers fresh from church who muttered in agreement all the way through. Then Michelle had arranged a dinner at Otto, Mario Batali’s new restaurant, with my closest friends and family. Everyone couldn’t stop hugging Jordana and Tessa and me and Michelle, all for different reasons. The food was wonderful, everyone was awesome…

In fact, that’s the thing. It will happen, sooner rather than later, someone who is feeling sorry for themselves is gonna shit on this. My friend Steve left me a voice mail saying ‘Happy Birthday, and Happy Engagement, dude do you really need this much attention…’ and he was kidding, but at some point someone is going to come along thinking that I think I am really cool for having a show open and getting married and having a birthday all in the same weekend.

But until that happens, I am still walking on air every time I look at Jordana. I have been walking on air for years, but now it’s because of this. And I cannot believe the level of love we have gotten from everyone. It’s really incredible. People are like kids when they hear, I can’t call anyone because I can’t get off the phone. It seems like everyone has been waiting for this for me as much as I have.

And so, I don’t really know how to write about it until I have some perspective.