What's in a Name?

When I left London last year I left my name plate on the door. I wrote about it in a July blog last year. You can read about it by clicking here if you wish. That story links to another one from the Helen Hayes theatre talking about the history of that particular name plate. That link can be read by clicking here.

You don't have to read the other entries. Just know that the name plate has been with me for a long time and there have been some spooky situations associated with it over those years.

All of this to say that coming back from my my show at the Gettysburg Majestic Theatre last month the magic name plate was broken into three pieces. I'm not sure how it happened since nothing else in the shipment of props was damaged. I was able to glue it back together, and now it has a rather distinctive "Y" shaped mark on its face. I guess I could think of that as a battle scar given that it has been through so much in its history. However, I choose to think of it as the wrinkle of experience which I see much more in my own face of late.

In fact it may be some sort of Dorian Gray symbol of the Johnson times. I could easily write on the symbolism of a lingering career; an identity broken by travel and too much time on the road, scared by events and separated into pieces not connected to the whole. However, it is in reality just a piece of plastic with lettering on it and it does not represent the way I see myself or the job that I am doing. Although I have had it in my possession for a long time, time itself may be its only significant value.

I am not sure if I will continue to travel with it and put it on the doors of dressing rooms to come. Perhaps the "wrinkle" will make it more interesting than it was before. Maybe it is trying to tell me it wants to retire and stay home. Then again, it is just a piece of plastic with lettering on it.

The problem with being a ventriloquist is that giving voice and life to so many inanimate objects sometimes carries over into your off stage life.

As you were,
Jay