Backstage Before the Show

Half an hour before the curtain goes up, backstage at a small community theatre is the most exciting place in town. Tonight the local group is performing a folk musical — the kind with old songs, simple stories, and a big drum that shakes the floor.

The stage manager, who has done this for fifteen years, moves quietly between the actors. She is the person who keeps everything calm while everyone else is nervous. Costumes are everywhere. A woman who plays a farmer is pulling on heavy boots that are slightly too big. A man in a bright costume, the one who opens the show, is checking his hat for the third time.

In the corner sits the drum, which is older than most of the cast. During the show it will set the rhythm for every song, and the whole musical depends on it. A teenager whose job is to play it taps it softly, testing the sound.

The theme of tonight's show is home — leaving it, missing it, returning to it. That theme runs through every folk song they will perform. You can feel it backstage too, in the way these neighbours, who see each other all year, become a small nervous family for one night.

Then a voice calls, “Places, please.” The costumes stop moving. The drum goes quiet. And the stage manager, who has been waiting fifteen years' worth of nights for exactly this moment, smiles and whispers, “Here we go.”