For the Seniors Taking Their Final Bow…

photo by Anthony Durzo

by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder

Dear Seniors,

This is probably going to feel strange.

At some point during this final show, it may hit you that this really is the last one. The last time you squeeze into that dressing room with too many people and not enough mirrors. The last time someone yells “places” and everyone suddenly gets quiet. The last time you stand backstage with your friends, trying to act normal while your stomach is doing backflips.

Your last high school show is a weird thing. Everyone tells you to enjoy it, but that is hard to do when you are also trying to remember choreography, fix your mic tape, find your prop, calm down a freshman, and not cry before the overture.

Still, I hope you take a second and look around.

Look at the people standing next to you. The ones you rehearsed with after long school days. The ones who saw you mess up, helped you recover, laughed with you, cried with you, and somehow became part of your life in a way you probably did not expect.

Because high school theatre has a way of doing that.

It becomes the place where you learned how to take up space. How to listen. How to lose a role and still show up. How to lead. How to support someone else when it was their turn. How to keep going when the set piece got stuck, the sound cue missed, or someone entered from the wrong side and everyone had to pretend that was the plan.

Maybe you played the lead. Maybe you were in the ensemble. Maybe you ran lights, built the set, organized costumes, moved furniture in the dark, or spent half the show sweating inside a giant animal costume.

All of it counted.

Theatre does not work because of one person. It works because everyone shows up. The person taking the bow at center stage needs the person holding the flashlight backstage. The big number needs the crew member who taped the floor. The emotional scene needs the stage manager calling the cue at exactly the right second.

So please do not measure your time here by how many lines you had or what role was next to your name in the program. Measure it by the work you did. The friends you made. The courage it took to audition. The moments when you helped make something better because you were there.

And yes, you are allowed to be emotional about it.

Cry during senior circle. Hug people too long. Take the blurry backstage pictures. Thank your director, your crew, your parents, your teachers, and the underclassmen who are going to miss you more than they are ready to admit.

Then go out there and do the show.

Not perfectly. Just fully.

Because after the final bow, after the costumes are turned in, after strike is over and the stage is empty, you will carry this with you. Maybe you keep doing theatre. Maybe you do not. Either way, this part of your life helped shape you.

You were part of something.

And for the rest of your life, somewhere in you, there will always be a theatre kid listening for “places.”