broadway bound

twenty five

    I waited offstage with Dan getting ready to go onstage to bow. It felt like something out of a dream.

"You ready?" Dan asked me. "As ready as I'll ever be" I answered.

He grabbed my hand and we ran out onstage. The audience all cheered. We bowed together. Then, I stepped back and let him bow and he stepped back to let me bow. We moved upstage and joined the rest of the cast that had already bowed.

Seth and Becca came out. The audience cheered as did everyone onstage. Once the both of them finished bowing they joined us, Seth standing next to me. Christy bowed next.

"We just did that" Seth whispered in my ear. I grabbed his hand, intertwining our fingers. I looked into his deep blue eyes. "Yeah we did"

After Christy bowed, Patrick bowed then Jeremy. The audience went absolutely crazy when Jeremy bowed and so did everyone onstage. The whole cast walked downstage and joined Jeremy. We all pointed to the orchestra pit for people to applaud and then we all joined hands and bowed together.

Once we finished bowing we walked offstage. All of our energy was through the roof. When we were all offstage all you could hear was the entire cast cheering. Next to being onstage there was no greater feeling than how happy we all felt. In that moment we felt invincible.

When I got into my dressing room, Christy was already in there changing back into her street clothes. My wig handler Alison helped me take my wig off and then I proceeded to change.

"How do you feel?" Christy asked putting on her Anastasia baseball cap.

"I don't think I've ever felt more alive than when I was onstage" I answered while I hung my costume on it's hanger and on my rack.

Christy smiled that big adorable smile. "There's honestly nothing better than that feeling." She said. "That means you know deep inside your heart you were amazing."

She ran over and gave me a hug. Once she let me go, I put on my shoes while she gathered her things together. There was a knock on the door.

"We're clothed" Christy called jokingly.

The door opened which revealed Derek and Elycia standing there. Derek ran over to me, picked me up then, started to jump and down while cheering. "I'm so proud of you! You're on broadway!"

"Technically I'm not on broadway till opening night. This is just a preview." I said while my whole body was bouncing up and down "And please put me down. I'm going to be sick"

Derek set me down then pulled me into the hug. I hugged him back of course but he wouldn't let go of me. I tried to push him off but he wouldn't move. Christy laughed during the whole thing. I'm sure it looked funny from any point of view but mine.

"Uh Derek.." I said. "Okay give the girl some space" Elycia said getting him to let me go so she could hug me.

I looked over at Derek and saw tears in his eyes which only made me more emotional.

"Your biggest dream came true tonight!" He said. "How do you feel?"

"There aren't enough words in the English vocabulary to describe how I feel" I admitted.

"You were amazing! The whole audience loved you" Elycia said. We took some pictures. One with me and Derek, one with me and Elycia and then Christy took a few of all three of us.

Derek and Elycia left and went home. I was headed to the stage door for my first stage door experience. When I got into the hallway near the door Seth was in there talking to Jeremy. Their conversation ended when they saw me. Jeremy ran over to me and gave me a hug.