Guest blogger Josh Greenfield is a junior at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. He plays Snug the Joiner in the Dallas Theater Center’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Read his previous post here.

Preview week was really crazy. The morning after the first preview, Paul Baker passed away, and Robyn Baker Flatt, his daughter, had to leave the show for a couple of days to be with her family and to attend to the funeral. So Joel Ferrell, our choreographer, stepped in to play Robyn’s role for a few performances. Joel had to carry a script on stage to speak his lines, but he knew the steps to the dance finale perfectly, of course! Then, later in the week, Cameron Kirkpatrick, who plays Tom Snout, had to get his appendix taken out, so he couldn’t be in the performance for as long as his doctor said he couldn’t go to the gym. (If you’ve seen Midsummer’s, you know that there isn’t a huge difference.) So Matthew Gray, a member of Dallas Theatre Center’s resident acting company, got a call at 10:30 in the morning, was at rehearsal by noon, and was on stage at 7. What a day!

Preview week definitely took a toll on me; I was probably what my peers would call a “hot mess” the entire week. I was tired, I was nervous, and I was living on Throat Coat tea and throat lozenges. It was definitely all worth it though.

Opening night was so remarkable that it almost felt unreal. For the last rehearsal, Kevin only made some minor changes; most of the real adjustments had already been made during a grueling preview week. Before they let us go, the music director, voice coach, choreographer, and, of course, Kevin, gave us their final notes and shared with us some inspiring parting words. After that, we were on our own – we had a show to open. At this point, it had not yet hit me yet that the big moment had finally arrived. All of our hard work was about to pay off.

One reason the show went so great opening night was because of the audience. Not only was my family out in the audience, but all of the theater seniors and theater faculty from Booker T. were there, too. It was so cool hearing all of my friends cheering for me when I did my “rap solo” during the dance finale. After the show, I headed over to the swanky cast party at Jorge’s in One Arts Plaza. It was truly an incredible party; everyone was so happy and joyful about making it to that moment, including me. And just for the record, at the bar I ordered a virgin margarita!

If you haven’t seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream, you really need to. The show is interactive, entertaining, joyous, hilarious and really fun! You will love it!