Perception

It was a two show day today and it was exhausting. The show times are close together and there is barely enough time to remember the first show before we start the next. However, after the second show tonight I got what could be the greatest compliment for the show that I have ever received.
I befriended a fellow actor who was across 44th doing Spamalot, while I was doing my show. We would meet at Angus for dinner after our respective shows and became friends. Steve sent his parents to my show during my run and I met them back stage at the Helen Hayes. Lovely people they were and I remember the evening they came very well.
Now it is years later and is happens that his dad is a dentist here in Rochester. Steve let them know that I was in town and they came to see my show again tonight. They even brought a theatre party of a couple of dozen.
I have to interject that my show is the same script here in Rochester as is was on Broadway. The only difference is the set that has been trimmed down to accommodate the tour. It is the same characters, same story and same music that we have been doing since the first run Off Broadway. We just can't travel with the scoop set which, although beautiful, really did not add to the material of the show.
Steve's parents stayed around to see me after the show tonight. It was a sold out crowd and a good audience. I felt very good about the performance. Steve's Dad said that he enjoyed the show the second time very much. Then he said, "I remember seeing the show on Broadway when you had Harry O'Shea with you. I guess he is just too delicate to travel with anymore. I loved the way you used the lighted lime green suitcase to symbolize him at the end.... I really didn't miss that he was not seen in the show this time."
Harry O'Shea has never been in the show and never will be. We have used the lighted green suitcase at the end of the show to symbolize him since the beginnings off Broadway. I did not correct his misperception since it was exactly what I want this show to do. He "saw" Harry because I told the story of Harry and Harry appeared in his mind... you can't create that image in reality. It is imagination. He believes that he saw a character that I just talk about in great detail. I could not be more delighted and complimented. I want this show to stay with an audience long after they have left the theatre. Indeed that happened with the good Doctor and he remembers it as I would want it to be remembered, not for the things that happened on stage, but as the theatre of his imagination the show inspired.
Thanks Mr. Rosenberg. You don't read this blog and I did not correct your memory because what you remember about my show, however incorrect is the absolute truth. Art is only in the mind of the observer. I could never present Harry O'Shea in a way that could compete with your memory. But it was always my intention for you to see Harry the way I knew him... as a creation of the imagination . Thank you.
As you were,
Jay