Last Night at Rodgers

One of the Most Amazing Weeks of My Life

PART 3

I was working the very final show at RMT. During this show, I teched for stage right. This night, in some ways, was more difficult to get through than the night before. I knew that once I left the building this night, I was never going back. That's a tough thing when you've spent about all your free time in that building for the past 9 years.

I came to work early so I could go chat with the cast for a couple minutes. They were all teary like we had been the night before. When I went to the lobby to start working, I saw that most of my cast was there to see the show. We joked that we couldn't keep away. The waiting list had about 60 people on it; everyone wanted to see the final performance on that stage. The sister of Ralph Rodgers intoduced the show. She told how she introduced the first show on that stage as well, in 1990. I was already crying by this point haha. I worked the show, and it went well, although not as seamlessly as the night before (I am not saying that because it was the other cast; the cast even admitted it).\

I finish my work when there is about 10 minutes left of the show. I clocked out, and then ran to the stage and sat down in the one empty chair left to watch the last few minutes of this performance. When I walked into the room, the most warm, amazing feeling was there. The last few minutes of the show were so wonderful, and I cried right along with the actors as they sang. Pretty much all of the audience was crying-especially my castmates. After the show there was a lot of crying and hugging and picture taking.

The show ends at 9:15 and I think we were there until 10:30. We were about to go to Chili's, when Scott told us we could come back because the box office would be working all night. Chili's was a blast!

After Chili's, Kyle, Chantryce, Annie, Mary, Jillian, Marin and I went back. We walked around and talked about how much we loved this place. Marin, Annie and Mary left. Then we each just walked around by ourselves thinking about every memory we had in each spot in the theatre. Together, we looked through each picture on the wall and identified every person we knew. It took forever, but we knew we'd probably never see those pictures again. Then we went to the green room and just talked about all of our favorite memories. Finally, at about 3, we knew it was time to go. We stood on the stage, crying, and knew we'd never walk back on that stage. It took a while for us to actually walk off the stage. It also took a while to walk out the doors of RMT, never to return.

I know that I have made this super dramatic, but this place meant the world to me. I am pretty sure I spent more of my teenage years there then at home (not counting sleeping, of course). I will eventually post all of the reasons I loved RMT.


As hard as it was to say goodbye, it was a perfect ending to that chapter of my life.