Each year I fail to attend a sufficient number of performances to merit generating a "best" list.
However, I do seem to find a performance, a production, or a moment that is personally significant and lasting.
This year it was the final performance of Next Fall (once a nominee for Best Play at the Tonys) at San Jose Rep.
Next Fall is a three hankie melodrama about the rights of a partner in same sex couples to participate in the decision making process of the incapacitated partner. In reality, the play is already dated.
The production I saw still moved me, well acted by a number of local performers and a few brought in for the event.
However, the moment that has stayed with me was a chat with the cast after the show. The actors sat in the usual line of folding chairs to respond to the standard curiosity about the rehearsal process, answer the lingering questions of what characters might do after the end of the show. and graciously accept a compliment.
Since this was this last performance, an audience member asked what each performer would be doing next. Each of these performers (with the exception of James Carpenter) announced their intention to file for unemployment in the next few days.
I thought how lucky I am here in the Bay Area to have such talented and dedicated professional actors who struggle financially day in and day out to survive in the Bay Area economy and insure those of us who love the arts have the opportunity to see quality theater.
This year my lasting memory of theater going in 2013 is the commitment and talent of the cast of Next Fall.
I want to send a deeply felt thank you to everyone who creates theater here in northern California. Your work greatly enriches my life and brings me continued joy.
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