Last Friday between warm-up run-throughs and the show, Chris the writer and co-producer and Kathryn, the co-producer, called the Company together for a meeting. "I'm getting a bad vibe about this," Jenny whispered.

Chris explained that the show's last performance in this run will be February 18. Not a shocker. This was the date we were scheduled to close if we couldn't get additional corporate sponsorship. It's almost 2 months past our originally slated closing and anyway, we outlasted all the other Off-Broadway Musicals that opened when we did. But, yeah, the show's closing.

Time to look at my life again. I was very comfortable performing every weekend. I enjoyed it. I was able to go home to Sam after the show. It was regular. I could invite industry folk to see me, love me, sign me. (They didn't.) If I didn't make enough money to meet expenses, I could get other work around it. I was performing every weekend. I was performing every weekend. I was performing every weekend.

That's in the past (almost). Come February 18, all those easy, fun and fulfilling performances will end. Then, 2 more days on location with Keith and his new musical film project. Then church choir and St. George Choral Society. Those keep my choral and Jesus chops oiled. But whence comes my character-based performance opportunities?

Audition. Publicity. Prayer.

And Keith.

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to ask me to sing a song for her every time we visited. I should've been more forthcoming; maybe my need to perform would've been satisfied by the time I was 13.

More next time.