It’s the night every theatre kid dreams about. You’ve spent weeks, sometimes months, rehearsing for this moment. The trials and tribulations of tech week come to a end, and it’s finally time to present your show to the public at opening night.
And sometimes, you’re under the weather leading up to and during your opening night performance… What do you do then?
Monday morning of opening week, I woke up with a sore throat. I had started to feel it the night before, but I had chalked it up to vocal fatigue coming out of a long week of tech rehearsals. Nope. It was definitely a sore throat.
I obviously freaked out and hit up the French pharmacy, grabbing some lozenges, a throat spray, gelee royale, and some immune system defensive tablets (similar to Emergen-C). That afternoon I started getting some fever-like symptoms, so I stayed in bed and drank lots of water the rest of the day.
The next few days, the symptoms increased. On Wednesday we were in rehearsal leading up to our invited dress rehearsal, and I thought I was going to pass out from my fever symptoms. I was taking so many medications at this point (thank god I found some dayquil/nyquil in my toiletry bag), but nothing was really helping me get better. It was only deterring some of the symptoms.
The anxiety kept building as well. Opening night was Thursday, which meant the press was going to be there to review our show. Not only that, but my parents were coming up all the way from Marseille to see opening so I wanted to give as good of a performance as possible.
So on opening night, I gave the best show I could given my current circumstances. It wasn’t perfect by any means. I had so many things I wish I could have done better, and I generally wished I felt less ill. But, I do believe I couldn’t have done it any better in my situation, so I was proud in a way.
Because of all of the aforementioned issues, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more nervous going into an opening night performance. Usually I experience happy nerves if I have people in the house and because it’s an exciting time, but I don’t know the last time I was this genuinely nervous. I didn’t know how my performance was going to go and that terrified me. I wish I could have been able to enjoy the night more, but I honestly was so nervous.
As opening weekend went on, I started feeling better. By Sunday, I felt almost back to normal. I felt that I was starting to have more fun, and a lot of my nerves were dissipating. As someone who’s worked really hard on their confidence and prides themselves on not letting anxiety affect their performance, this has been a really interesting chapter for me though. I’m curious to see if the nerves are going to slowly disappear for good, or if they will flare up from time to time.
Outside of the show, I had some great moments with my family. We ate at an incredible all-you-can-eat brunch spot, Benoît Castel, that had the best buffet for 35€ per person. A big steal if you ask me! I was also able to bring them some viennoiseries from Les Terroirs d’Avenir, a boulangerie by me, that I’m convinced has the best pastries I’ve ever eaten.
Oh! I dyed my hair gray for the show! After about a week of putting white mascara in my hair (that wouldn’t come out after multiple washes) to age me for the role, I asked them to dye it. They agreed to do so, and they really slayed me!
I figured this was a lot less day to day upkeep, and I’m so glad I did it. Plus my current partner doesn’t mind it, so I’m not trying to impress anyone outside of work or anything.
My hair is pretty dead though, so I’m looking on ways to revitalize it and bring back my curls. If anyone has any tips, please let me know! I have a purple shampoo I’m using and I’ve got a purple mask to use once a week, but none of my usual tricks are bringing back my curls which makes me sad. But I hope they come back eventually!
Overall, I’m excited to keep performing this show and to get into the rhythm of a consistent 7 show week. This show is all about joy, and I’m so lucky to get to share this joy in a time when the world feels so scary.
For those of you who are new here, hi! I’m Paul Amrani, and I just moved to Paris to star as Andy Miller in the Lido Theatre’s production of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. I was born in France and moved to the US when I was 2 and a half, but it’s always been a dream of mine to come back and live here. I post weekly diary style (or however I feel that week) entries detailing my life in the city of light. Subscribe to Paul in Paris to follow along on my journey!