PPD

It’s time for my annual bout with post-Monteux depression, and for some reason it seems even more acute this year than normal.  It’s probably because I have no rebound project to dive into immediately.  In showbiz (or at least in late ’90’s East Coast high school theater parlance) we call this PPD: Post-Production Depression.  It occurs when you’ve just dedicated tremendous time and energy into a big collaborative project; when the project comes to an end, the balloon deflates, and you’re left struggling to hold on to the feeling.

There’s something comforting in PPD though, because it means that what you were doing was worthwhile, and that you were working with great people – certainly the case for me this summer.  I think a lot about the kids doing WST this summer, a troupe I was involved with from ’99 – ’02, and which gave me my first major experiences of PPD.  These kids are about to wrap up a production of “Forum”, and even though that chapter of my life is ten years behind me (cue the next depressive episode), I know exactly how they’re going to feel this weekend after the run is over.  It’s a strange mixture of relaxation and malaise, of needing to rest and needing to move at the same time; it’s amplified by like a thousand if you had a crush on someone during the production, which you might as well do.

The geography always kicks me in the butt after these summers too.  Up in Maine, the bright Northern sun comes streaming into your window at around 5:30 in the morning and you wake up feeling like you’ve already started the day.  Add to that a few breaths of the freshest air known to man, and your batteries are pretty well charged.  Which is good for someone who’s about to go play viola for seven hours, bash around a tennis ball for two, and eat and drink too much in the remaining time.  Ah, Maine.


My Summer Listening List has consisted of the following, listed in no particular order:

1) Scissor Sisters: Magic Hour (Deluxe Edition)

2) Frank Ocean: Channel Orange

3) Guillermo Klein: Carrera

4) Punch Brothers: Who’s Feeling Young Now?

5) Styne/Sondheim/Merman: GYPSY the Original Broadway Cast

5 Comments

Alice

I know the feeling. Just went through a bout of PPD myself after closing The Music Man at Arena, which happened to include a cast member who had directed WST’s original production of West Side Story. Small world. Which leads me to my question…are you going to be in town for Alumni Night this weekend?

willcwhite

I wish! I made a quick visit to DC earlier this summer (my first in two years!) but I’m not sure when I’ll be back next. Let me know how the show goes… and of course, where they put the chicken!

El Benson

I hear you. When I finish a piece, like actually put it to bed, there’s always that empty and gnawing, but full-of-possibilities question: “what next?”

Thrilled, of course, to see a certain Argentine friend of ours on your summer listening list.

willcwhite

Guillermo just keeps knocking it out of the park. That particular song, “Moreira”, has been haunting me the past few days… would love to know what it’s all about.

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