We’re in rehearsals here in Armagh, and my ten-minute play is finally being put into action.  So how does that make me feel?  A bit like what I imagine a new father feels like when the hospital staff is handling his baby.  A little frightened that someone’s going to drop the kid on his head.  Reassuring myself that these people are professionals.  And most of all, excited and proud.

I love writing.  I love the stories and characters that swirl through my brain, I love seeing the finished product on the screen or on paper, and I love letting others experience my fantasies.  But nothing brings a work to life like acting it out onstage.  As a creator, I get a thrill like no other whenever my work takes physical or verbal form.  I still remember the adrenaline rush I got from seeing my play “Bleeding Oscar” performed at the end of my college playwriting class and from reading short stories aloud at North Greenville’s Poetry Night.  Who needs to get high when you can do what you love and get the same buzz (with less threat of being arrested)?

Of course, we’re not actually performing it yet; we’re just rehearsing.  But the anticipation is building.  As my words take form in real space, as collaborated changes smooth off roughened edges and add on new embellishments, as my friends breathe their own lives into my story, I can already tell that next Wednesday will be a wonderful, wild ride.

And I am happy.  Very, very happy.