In honor of Thanksgiving, I reached out to subjects from past interviews, some colleagues, friends, and a few total strangers, to compile a list of theater memories that make them feel grateful.
Here's what they said:
"I'm grateful that my mother still comes to see all my shows. Every one. She used to come to every performance, but I begged her to stop, because she was going to go bankrupt paying for all those tickets and I couldn't ask to comp her every time. This last show I was in, she went to the box office and told them whose mother she was, and that she would be there every night if she could. They made a little sign for her and reserved a seat right in the front row--free of charge. She was on cloud nine. So I'm grateful for the box office staff at that theater for making my mother so happy as well."
"I'm doing a Shakespeare right now and we were going to have a dog in the show, but we couldn't find one. I volunteered my cat. Nobody believed my cat would behave. I knew she would, so I brought her in, and it turns out, she loves the stage. She gets a bigger round of applause than the lead every night. I know some people who have gotten to work with their spouses or their kids, but I'm very grateful I get to act with my cat. She's a little diva, but I love her."
"I'm grateful for stage managers. I've worked with some of the best. When you walk into a theater and they have photos hanging up of the actors, I always say they should put up a photo of the stage manager, because they're the ones who built the house and pay the bills and the rest of it just fill it up with pretty furniture."
"I hit a point a few years ago where I wasn’t sure I was going to keep doing theater. I had a lot going on in my life and I was finding my work in theater to be more draining than rewarding. I wasn’t happy where I was working and did not feel that my time was valued. So I decided to take a break, and see what life without theater was like, if it would be better. I took almost an entire season off, only doing one show with a dear friend who made me feel happy, fulfilled, and supported as an artist AND a person. It was not an easy process by any means, but I was so happy to be back doing what I loved, and I realized how empty my life was without theater. That show not only reminded me of how much I love making theater, but also that I’m good at it. I decided after that to make sure I surrounded myself with people who value me and my work, so that is what I am grateful for. I am grateful for the artists who have helped me find myself and my love of theater again. I am grateful for people who build me up, challenge me, and make me a better artist. I am grateful for my new homes and friends in this community. I am grateful to still be a part of it."
"When I wanted to quit, this director called me up every week and said, 'When are you coming back?' until I did. Now I'm back and I'm very happy and grateful she kept calling."
"I'm grateful that I decided to produce something on my own this year. I know you and I spoke about it, but I was very nervous right up until I was backstage on opening night and I heard voices in the house. I went, 'Wow, people showed up!' I think part of me didn't think they would. Sometimes you forget that it means a lot when people show up, but that night, I did not forget, and I'm glad I didn't. I'm going to try not to forget again."
"This year I got to play a bucket list role. Somebody sent me an email asking if I wanted to do Martha in [Who's Afraid of] Virginia Woolf? We just had the best time. My George was a real sweetie. Not bad looking either, but he told me my husband is more his speed. What a great show that was and my wig was to die for. Never underestimate a good wig."
"We had a big fundraising goal this month. The board didn't think we would get there. I didn't think we would get there. The community showed up and we tripled the goal. We. Tripled. It. People are strapped these days. Not everybody has extra money to donate. I know what it means that people showed up for us like that. It means that we're a valued member of this community, and I'm touched every day when I come to work and see our building and think, 'People value us.' I'm very grateful for that."
"I was in The Wizard of Oz. I played the Wicked Witch. I came out and two thousand little kids started screaming. Best reaction I ever got from an audience. I love kids. I have three of them. But that was pretty great."
"Six years ago I was in a play and I lost my dad mid-way through the run and my understudy stepped in and finished out the run for me. I couldn't get back onstage for a year after that, but I went to the final performance so I could see her do it, and when it was time for the bows, she came into the audience, got me, and brought me up onstage with her. She wanted me to have the final bow with her. I'll never forget that."
"Since your interview with me came out, I've had so many people reach out to me with kind words. It's helped me restore a lot of faith that I lost. I'm grateful for that. If you have a chance to reach out to somebody and say something nice, please do it. I don't know if all those people know what that meant to me, but it's completely changed my life."
"I'm grateful for the director who gave me a chance when nobody else would. I was going to call it quits, and him doing that kept me going. Once I'm done with this email, I'm going to send another one to him saying 'Thank you again' because I don't think he realizes what a big deal that was."
"I don't know if they know this, but my theater students are what I'm grateful for every year. I don't have kids and I think of them as my kids and they think of me as their crazy aunt who makes them do improv exercises at 10am on Monday mornings when they're hung-over and miserable."
"My daughter got cast in her school play. She's one of the two leads and she's over the moon about it. I can't remember the last time I was that excited to be in a play, but I'm like a kid again seeing how excited she is."
"One of my castmates in A Christmas Carol is a trained chef and he comes in every day with food for everybody. I've never been happier being in a A Christmas Carol. I asked if we could extend the show into next year just so I can keep eating this man's food."
"I directed three shows this year. I'm grateful to be working and to have people who give me their trust and their time. I hope I did right by them."
"My wife and I are celebrating thirty years of marriage next year and we met doing Our Town. That's always going to be my favorite theater memory and the thing I'm most grateful for even though she tells me all the time that I wasn't a very good George."
"In the 90's I was still game for doing really wacky stuff like theater in strange places and we did a play--I don't even remember the title--in this old barn that was just so bad. It was really bad. The play. Everything about it. We rehearsed for one week and then the barn burned down. That's a true story. I didn't burn it down, but I would have if I thought it was an option. Nobody got hurt and the guy who owned the barn got the insurance money so the only downside was we couldn't do the play and nobody wanted to and so we were all very grateful and to this day I still am."
"I got to sing Cole Porter in a show once and it was such fun. I've never gotten to do it again, but I still think about it. It was pure joy. I'm very grateful I've gotten to have all these great adventures over the years."
"My memorizing skills aren't what they used to be so I'm grateful that I did everything I wanted to do acting-wise before all that went to hell, and now I have a brand new life teaching the next generation of actors, which has been a welcome chapter to my story."
"I'm grateful I learned how to say 'No' this year. That was always hard for me, and I'm able to do it now, and that's been a big thing for me."
"I'm grateful when I get a new script in the mail or when I buy one at the bookstore or however I get it. I love that."
"Not to be all dreary about it, but I'm grateful that some of the people who've gotten away with so much for so long are finally being called out. I'm grateful for #MeToo and people standing up to say some of this behavior has to stop. I don't want some of the young girls and young men I see these days going through the things the rest of us went through. I have a lot of hope and I'm grateful to have it."
"My friend is helping me digitize all these old theater photos I have and I'm having the best time looking back on all these memories. I've got boxes to go and it's giving me something to look forward to."
"I introduced my daughter to Rent this year and inside of a week she knew every word and her favorite were all of Maureen's songs and I waited a little bit and then we're in the car one day and she tells me to put on 'Take Me or Leave Me' and I go, 'You know, I played Maureen--twice.' She couldn't believe it. I scored major Cool Mom points. That was the best thing to happen all year."
"I'm grateful for that time my memory failed me in the middle of singing 'Beauty & The Beast' during this cabaret in high school and right then I just said, 'Sing along with me' and the audience did and it looked like I was just working the crowd and my teacher was so impressed, and I still can't believe I got away with it."
"You ever just think--People paid money to see this thing I'm doing? That always gets me very emotional when I stop and think about it."
"I'm grateful for the boy who runs lines with me. He comes to my house and we talk about different things and he helps me with lines. He's the son of a friend and he just finds theater so interesting so he's happy to do it. I've tried to pay him for it, but he won't take the money. He just asks for a free ticket to the show--whatever show I'm in that he's helping me with, and so I get him the ticket or the theater gives it to me. He's my hero."
"I'm grateful that I decided to try being in a film this year and with all the respect in the world to people who do films, because I have so much respect for them, I have to say--It has made me very grateful that I do theater."
"Our theater will have its first female Artistic Director in its history starting January 1st and I'm very very very grateful--and it's about damn time."
"I'm grateful that Ali Stroker won a Tony this year, because I've always wanted to be in musicals, but I didn't think it was possible, and now it's like--Why did I think that? Anything's possible. This woman who's dealing with the same stuff I am just won a Tony. So I'm not going to put those limits on myself anymore. Like, honestly, why did I ever do that? I'm grateful that I'm not going to do that anymore."
"I'm grateful that I'm alive at the same time as Idina Menzel."
"My husband proposed to me onstage during bows for Othello. I think the audience was glad to have something uplifting after that show. We've been together nine years."
"I'm grateful for the actress who--we were doing a show together this summer--and she pulled me aside and told me that she thought I was doing a good job. I wasn't feeling so hot about my performance, so to hear her say that--I love when actors lift up other actors, especially when it's two women. I really loved that."
"I would say I'm grateful that the prop I made for five bucks for this professional show I worked on this year lasted through the entire run and worked right every time. It's the little things."
"This theater I work at--they decided to do The Elephant Man. You know the woman--there's nudity in it. I didn't want to do it. I'm almost fifty years-old. I didn't want to do it. My husband told me I was insane. That it's a great part; I should do it. I said I would do it. At the read-through, everyone sees how nervous I am. The lighting designer comes up to me and says, 'Don't worry. I'll take good care of you.' I didn't know what he meant. We get to tech. We do the scene. Everyone says I look so beautiful. I tell the director to take a picture of it because I can't see it. He asks me if I'm serious. I say 'Yes. I want to see it.' He takes the picture. I couldn't get over it. I look like I'm ten years younger. I wanted to marry that lighting guy. I tell all my friends, 'I want him to follow me around and light me wherever I go.' He's a genius. I bought him a big gift once the show was over. Now I want to get naked all the time. Bring it on! Just make sure he's lighting me."
"I got to do Sweeney this year. What's better than that?"
"I just finished playing Sylvia in Sylvia. That was the most I ever had."
"I'm grateful in advance for whoever is going to let me play Evita soon because I'm not getting any younger!"
"My six-year-old son came to see me in a play and it was his first time seeing Dad onstage. At intermission, he turned to my wife and said 'Daddy's up there!' and then I guess he said, 'Can we go home now?' So I guess I'm grateful for kids, fame, and humility."
"I'm grateful that a lot of people don't know what they want to do or be and I've known what I wanted and who I was since I was born. I'm an actor."
"I'm grateful every time I finish a script."
"I'm grateful when I get to teach a bunch of kids how to tap."
"I'm grateful for that moment when you get a hug from your co-star before you go onstage on opening night."
"I'm grateful I've only ever broken once onstage and when I did, I spit water all over the stage. If you're going to go, go big."
"I called a perfect show the other night. Everything went right. I'm grateful for that and it's never going to happen again."
"I'm grateful I got an agent this year."
"I'm grateful to be in the union."
"I'm grateful to be back doing what I love after taking a break to take care of myself and deal with some demons I was facing. I'm glad to be welcomed back so warmly."
"I'm grateful that people think I'm good even if it's not many people."
"I'm grateful that I've managed to make a living at this for so long. My father said I needed to become a nurse or a secretary and thank god I didn't listen to him because I still pass out when I see blood or typewriters."
"I'm grateful for all the conversations I've had in dressing rooms over the years."
"I'm grateful that I've known my best friend for twenty years and we met when we were in a play together kindergarten and she was so scared she grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go."
"I'm grateful for the costumes I've gotten to wear. I stole a few of them, but don't tell anybody. This is still anonymous, right?"
"I'm grateful for costume designers who've made me look so good even though in person I look like death most of the time."
"Costume designers."
"Stage managers."
"My assistant director who brought me coffee just the way I wanted it every single day. They should make her a saint."
"The interns. Those poor bastards. I'm grateful for them."
"I saw an usher sit with an audience member at one of our sensory performances. He was having an episode and she sat with him and his parents until it was over. I found out later that she has an adopted son who's autistic, and that made me ashamed, because I see some of these people all the time and don't know anything about them. Next year that's going to change and I'm grateful for the wake-up call."
"I'm grateful for the woman at the matinee who yelled out 'No!' when we revealed who the killer was. I thought it was pretty obvious so I'm grateful we surprised somebody."
"When my friends tell me I did a good job. I'm grateful for that."
"I'm grateful for critics, believe it or not. They get a bad rap, and they're right at least thirty percent of the time."
"I'm grateful for Pay-What-You-Can nights, because that's the only way I can afford to see plays."
"I'm grateful for my daughter who goes to see shows with me now that I can't drive anymore."
"I'm grateful for _______ who taught me fight choreography, because it inspired me to become a fight choreographer and I've been doing it for close to fifteen years now. He changed my life."
"I'm grateful for theater, because theater changed my life."
"Theater saved my life."
"It saved my life."
"I was in God of Carnage and there's nothing better than fake vomit."
"They let me do the kickline in Anything Goes. Have you ever been in a kickline? It's the best @#$-ing feeling in the world, let me tell you."
"I'm grateful that my wife puts up with me going to all these rehearsals. She knows that I love her more than anything, and she knows I love theater, and she always tells me that she wants to support me doing what I love. I'm very lucky to have her."
And from one of the most recent interviews--
"I hadn't acted in a long time and I didn't know if I still had it in me. Opening night--it was one of those nights everybody was there. I just hit the right notes. I knew I did. Landed right where I needed to. That felt good. I came backstage when the show was done, and everybody had a cake for me. They were all standing there. I just had all these people out in the house standing up and clapping for me, and then I go backstage, and there's all these people I've worked with for years and years, just howling because they were so proud of me. I think that's it. I don't think it'll get any better than that even if I had a hundred more years."
Here's what they said:
"I'm grateful that my mother still comes to see all my shows. Every one. She used to come to every performance, but I begged her to stop, because she was going to go bankrupt paying for all those tickets and I couldn't ask to comp her every time. This last show I was in, she went to the box office and told them whose mother she was, and that she would be there every night if she could. They made a little sign for her and reserved a seat right in the front row--free of charge. She was on cloud nine. So I'm grateful for the box office staff at that theater for making my mother so happy as well."
"I'm doing a Shakespeare right now and we were going to have a dog in the show, but we couldn't find one. I volunteered my cat. Nobody believed my cat would behave. I knew she would, so I brought her in, and it turns out, she loves the stage. She gets a bigger round of applause than the lead every night. I know some people who have gotten to work with their spouses or their kids, but I'm very grateful I get to act with my cat. She's a little diva, but I love her."
"I'm grateful for stage managers. I've worked with some of the best. When you walk into a theater and they have photos hanging up of the actors, I always say they should put up a photo of the stage manager, because they're the ones who built the house and pay the bills and the rest of it just fill it up with pretty furniture."
"I hit a point a few years ago where I wasn’t sure I was going to keep doing theater. I had a lot going on in my life and I was finding my work in theater to be more draining than rewarding. I wasn’t happy where I was working and did not feel that my time was valued. So I decided to take a break, and see what life without theater was like, if it would be better. I took almost an entire season off, only doing one show with a dear friend who made me feel happy, fulfilled, and supported as an artist AND a person. It was not an easy process by any means, but I was so happy to be back doing what I loved, and I realized how empty my life was without theater. That show not only reminded me of how much I love making theater, but also that I’m good at it. I decided after that to make sure I surrounded myself with people who value me and my work, so that is what I am grateful for. I am grateful for the artists who have helped me find myself and my love of theater again. I am grateful for people who build me up, challenge me, and make me a better artist. I am grateful for my new homes and friends in this community. I am grateful to still be a part of it."
"When I wanted to quit, this director called me up every week and said, 'When are you coming back?' until I did. Now I'm back and I'm very happy and grateful she kept calling."
"I'm grateful that I decided to produce something on my own this year. I know you and I spoke about it, but I was very nervous right up until I was backstage on opening night and I heard voices in the house. I went, 'Wow, people showed up!' I think part of me didn't think they would. Sometimes you forget that it means a lot when people show up, but that night, I did not forget, and I'm glad I didn't. I'm going to try not to forget again."
"This year I got to play a bucket list role. Somebody sent me an email asking if I wanted to do Martha in [Who's Afraid of] Virginia Woolf? We just had the best time. My George was a real sweetie. Not bad looking either, but he told me my husband is more his speed. What a great show that was and my wig was to die for. Never underestimate a good wig."
"We had a big fundraising goal this month. The board didn't think we would get there. I didn't think we would get there. The community showed up and we tripled the goal. We. Tripled. It. People are strapped these days. Not everybody has extra money to donate. I know what it means that people showed up for us like that. It means that we're a valued member of this community, and I'm touched every day when I come to work and see our building and think, 'People value us.' I'm very grateful for that."
"I was in The Wizard of Oz. I played the Wicked Witch. I came out and two thousand little kids started screaming. Best reaction I ever got from an audience. I love kids. I have three of them. But that was pretty great."
"Six years ago I was in a play and I lost my dad mid-way through the run and my understudy stepped in and finished out the run for me. I couldn't get back onstage for a year after that, but I went to the final performance so I could see her do it, and when it was time for the bows, she came into the audience, got me, and brought me up onstage with her. She wanted me to have the final bow with her. I'll never forget that."
"Since your interview with me came out, I've had so many people reach out to me with kind words. It's helped me restore a lot of faith that I lost. I'm grateful for that. If you have a chance to reach out to somebody and say something nice, please do it. I don't know if all those people know what that meant to me, but it's completely changed my life."
"I'm grateful for the director who gave me a chance when nobody else would. I was going to call it quits, and him doing that kept me going. Once I'm done with this email, I'm going to send another one to him saying 'Thank you again' because I don't think he realizes what a big deal that was."
"I don't know if they know this, but my theater students are what I'm grateful for every year. I don't have kids and I think of them as my kids and they think of me as their crazy aunt who makes them do improv exercises at 10am on Monday mornings when they're hung-over and miserable."
"My daughter got cast in her school play. She's one of the two leads and she's over the moon about it. I can't remember the last time I was that excited to be in a play, but I'm like a kid again seeing how excited she is."
"One of my castmates in A Christmas Carol is a trained chef and he comes in every day with food for everybody. I've never been happier being in a A Christmas Carol. I asked if we could extend the show into next year just so I can keep eating this man's food."
"I directed three shows this year. I'm grateful to be working and to have people who give me their trust and their time. I hope I did right by them."
"My wife and I are celebrating thirty years of marriage next year and we met doing Our Town. That's always going to be my favorite theater memory and the thing I'm most grateful for even though she tells me all the time that I wasn't a very good George."
"In the 90's I was still game for doing really wacky stuff like theater in strange places and we did a play--I don't even remember the title--in this old barn that was just so bad. It was really bad. The play. Everything about it. We rehearsed for one week and then the barn burned down. That's a true story. I didn't burn it down, but I would have if I thought it was an option. Nobody got hurt and the guy who owned the barn got the insurance money so the only downside was we couldn't do the play and nobody wanted to and so we were all very grateful and to this day I still am."
"I got to sing Cole Porter in a show once and it was such fun. I've never gotten to do it again, but I still think about it. It was pure joy. I'm very grateful I've gotten to have all these great adventures over the years."
"My memorizing skills aren't what they used to be so I'm grateful that I did everything I wanted to do acting-wise before all that went to hell, and now I have a brand new life teaching the next generation of actors, which has been a welcome chapter to my story."
"I'm grateful I learned how to say 'No' this year. That was always hard for me, and I'm able to do it now, and that's been a big thing for me."
"I'm grateful when I get a new script in the mail or when I buy one at the bookstore or however I get it. I love that."
"Not to be all dreary about it, but I'm grateful that some of the people who've gotten away with so much for so long are finally being called out. I'm grateful for #MeToo and people standing up to say some of this behavior has to stop. I don't want some of the young girls and young men I see these days going through the things the rest of us went through. I have a lot of hope and I'm grateful to have it."
"My friend is helping me digitize all these old theater photos I have and I'm having the best time looking back on all these memories. I've got boxes to go and it's giving me something to look forward to."
"I introduced my daughter to Rent this year and inside of a week she knew every word and her favorite were all of Maureen's songs and I waited a little bit and then we're in the car one day and she tells me to put on 'Take Me or Leave Me' and I go, 'You know, I played Maureen--twice.' She couldn't believe it. I scored major Cool Mom points. That was the best thing to happen all year."
"I'm grateful for that time my memory failed me in the middle of singing 'Beauty & The Beast' during this cabaret in high school and right then I just said, 'Sing along with me' and the audience did and it looked like I was just working the crowd and my teacher was so impressed, and I still can't believe I got away with it."
"You ever just think--People paid money to see this thing I'm doing? That always gets me very emotional when I stop and think about it."
"I'm grateful for the boy who runs lines with me. He comes to my house and we talk about different things and he helps me with lines. He's the son of a friend and he just finds theater so interesting so he's happy to do it. I've tried to pay him for it, but he won't take the money. He just asks for a free ticket to the show--whatever show I'm in that he's helping me with, and so I get him the ticket or the theater gives it to me. He's my hero."
"I'm grateful that I decided to try being in a film this year and with all the respect in the world to people who do films, because I have so much respect for them, I have to say--It has made me very grateful that I do theater."
"Our theater will have its first female Artistic Director in its history starting January 1st and I'm very very very grateful--and it's about damn time."
"I'm grateful that Ali Stroker won a Tony this year, because I've always wanted to be in musicals, but I didn't think it was possible, and now it's like--Why did I think that? Anything's possible. This woman who's dealing with the same stuff I am just won a Tony. So I'm not going to put those limits on myself anymore. Like, honestly, why did I ever do that? I'm grateful that I'm not going to do that anymore."
"I'm grateful that I'm alive at the same time as Idina Menzel."
"My husband proposed to me onstage during bows for Othello. I think the audience was glad to have something uplifting after that show. We've been together nine years."
"I'm grateful for the actress who--we were doing a show together this summer--and she pulled me aside and told me that she thought I was doing a good job. I wasn't feeling so hot about my performance, so to hear her say that--I love when actors lift up other actors, especially when it's two women. I really loved that."
"I would say I'm grateful that the prop I made for five bucks for this professional show I worked on this year lasted through the entire run and worked right every time. It's the little things."
"This theater I work at--they decided to do The Elephant Man. You know the woman--there's nudity in it. I didn't want to do it. I'm almost fifty years-old. I didn't want to do it. My husband told me I was insane. That it's a great part; I should do it. I said I would do it. At the read-through, everyone sees how nervous I am. The lighting designer comes up to me and says, 'Don't worry. I'll take good care of you.' I didn't know what he meant. We get to tech. We do the scene. Everyone says I look so beautiful. I tell the director to take a picture of it because I can't see it. He asks me if I'm serious. I say 'Yes. I want to see it.' He takes the picture. I couldn't get over it. I look like I'm ten years younger. I wanted to marry that lighting guy. I tell all my friends, 'I want him to follow me around and light me wherever I go.' He's a genius. I bought him a big gift once the show was over. Now I want to get naked all the time. Bring it on! Just make sure he's lighting me."
"I got to do Sweeney this year. What's better than that?"
"I just finished playing Sylvia in Sylvia. That was the most I ever had."
"I'm grateful in advance for whoever is going to let me play Evita soon because I'm not getting any younger!"
"My six-year-old son came to see me in a play and it was his first time seeing Dad onstage. At intermission, he turned to my wife and said 'Daddy's up there!' and then I guess he said, 'Can we go home now?' So I guess I'm grateful for kids, fame, and humility."
"I'm grateful that a lot of people don't know what they want to do or be and I've known what I wanted and who I was since I was born. I'm an actor."
"I'm grateful every time I finish a script."
"I'm grateful when I get to teach a bunch of kids how to tap."
"I'm grateful for that moment when you get a hug from your co-star before you go onstage on opening night."
"I'm grateful I've only ever broken once onstage and when I did, I spit water all over the stage. If you're going to go, go big."
"I called a perfect show the other night. Everything went right. I'm grateful for that and it's never going to happen again."
"I'm grateful I got an agent this year."
"I'm grateful to be in the union."
"I'm grateful to be back doing what I love after taking a break to take care of myself and deal with some demons I was facing. I'm glad to be welcomed back so warmly."
"I'm grateful that people think I'm good even if it's not many people."
"I'm grateful that I've managed to make a living at this for so long. My father said I needed to become a nurse or a secretary and thank god I didn't listen to him because I still pass out when I see blood or typewriters."
"I'm grateful for all the conversations I've had in dressing rooms over the years."
"I'm grateful that I've known my best friend for twenty years and we met when we were in a play together kindergarten and she was so scared she grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go."
"I'm grateful for the costumes I've gotten to wear. I stole a few of them, but don't tell anybody. This is still anonymous, right?"
"I'm grateful for costume designers who've made me look so good even though in person I look like death most of the time."
"Costume designers."
"Stage managers."
"My assistant director who brought me coffee just the way I wanted it every single day. They should make her a saint."
"The interns. Those poor bastards. I'm grateful for them."
"I saw an usher sit with an audience member at one of our sensory performances. He was having an episode and she sat with him and his parents until it was over. I found out later that she has an adopted son who's autistic, and that made me ashamed, because I see some of these people all the time and don't know anything about them. Next year that's going to change and I'm grateful for the wake-up call."
"I'm grateful for the woman at the matinee who yelled out 'No!' when we revealed who the killer was. I thought it was pretty obvious so I'm grateful we surprised somebody."
"When my friends tell me I did a good job. I'm grateful for that."
"I'm grateful for critics, believe it or not. They get a bad rap, and they're right at least thirty percent of the time."
"I'm grateful for Pay-What-You-Can nights, because that's the only way I can afford to see plays."
"I'm grateful for my daughter who goes to see shows with me now that I can't drive anymore."
"I'm grateful for _______ who taught me fight choreography, because it inspired me to become a fight choreographer and I've been doing it for close to fifteen years now. He changed my life."
"I'm grateful for theater, because theater changed my life."
"Theater saved my life."
"It saved my life."
"I was in God of Carnage and there's nothing better than fake vomit."
"They let me do the kickline in Anything Goes. Have you ever been in a kickline? It's the best @#$-ing feeling in the world, let me tell you."
"I'm grateful that my wife puts up with me going to all these rehearsals. She knows that I love her more than anything, and she knows I love theater, and she always tells me that she wants to support me doing what I love. I'm very lucky to have her."
And from one of the most recent interviews--
"I hadn't acted in a long time and I didn't know if I still had it in me. Opening night--it was one of those nights everybody was there. I just hit the right notes. I knew I did. Landed right where I needed to. That felt good. I came backstage when the show was done, and everybody had a cake for me. They were all standing there. I just had all these people out in the house standing up and clapping for me, and then I go backstage, and there's all these people I've worked with for years and years, just howling because they were so proud of me. I think that's it. I don't think it'll get any better than that even if I had a hundred more years."
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