BWW Blog: A Letter to the Krannert Center

Dear Krannert Center,

I miss you. I miss those concrete walls with everyone's signature on them. I miss going to the costume shop. I miss being backstage for quick changes. I miss going to dance class at 9 am and getting coffee afterwards. I miss being in rehearsals practicing music, blocking and doing songs as monologues. I miss having tape on the floor to use for spacing before tech week. I can't believe it, but I miss tech week. There's a vibrating hustle and bustle to running around trying to figure out where your garment bag is. There's makeup strewn across your dressing room table with your music history anthology sitting next to you for your next final. I miss waiting around backstage during cue to cues. I miss getting fitted for costumes, and then rushing back upstairs for the Uncorked cabaret. I miss sitting in seats waiting to hear the overture or the Act 1 finale. I miss sitting at the LTI table outside of Tryon selling tshirts and show cupcakes. I miss the bright lights of Stage 5, the piano and the people who come to watch the shows. I miss after Crazy for You, running up to Stage 5 with my tap shoes to teach people how to tap dance. I miss wanting to jump into a ball pit (yes, a ball pit) on stage even though our director said we couldn't. I miss having shin splints after running around in gladiator sandals whilst also taking dance classes twice a week. I miss our ballet teacher saying "One more again!" I miss the funky syllables and words tap teachers say when teaching a combination (ka koonk ka KAH). I miss the tomato soup at Intermezzo in the winter while watching a snowstorm come in. I miss a slew of sweaty people downstairs waiting to audition for the dance call for Cabaret. I miss going to dance performances where I could see my own dance teacher perform on stage. I miss seeing Savion Glover literally tap his socks/shoes off while wiping sweat from his face. I miss watching the head of my department play Don Giovanni at the Tryon Festival Theatre. I miss hearing the King's Singers in Foellinger Auditorium sing "Aruba, Jamaica, oooh I wanna take ya." I miss writing about performances for my major. I miss seeing the incredible sets for shows for the first time. I miss having fire alarms go off the second before the final scene of a show and the whole cast finishing the show outside. I miss the busy days where the only thing I could grab to eat before rehearsal or class was Manolo's. I miss having to crawl on the floor in the choral rehearsal room to improve my technique. I miss being able to sit in a room with 50 other girls warming up before choir rehearsal. I miss our Christmas choir concert seeing hundreds of students in the aisles waiting to turn on their fake candles. I miss getting off a train running to Krannert for a choir concert starting in 30 minutes. I miss all of it. But I know you'll still be there when I get back. So until then, it's just see you soon.