Sixteen years ago, seconds before the curtain rose on my first Community Revue, I received some great advice from our director.
“Remember the moments,” he told me.
I still have the list of memories I wrote after the 2004 show, “Hinsdale: The Reality Factor.” I have not been as diligent about recording the special moments from subsequent shows, but those three words from Dave Heilmann have stayed with me all these years.
His advice reminds me of a piece I had read in the Trib a few years earlier. Michele Weldon wrote in the late 1990s about how important it is to let go and have a really good time.
“From all those times, those eternal, sacred moments of my life strung together inside me, pearl by pearl, I learned what it is to be happy. I know what it is to be full of joy, how to embrace the second when I am completely content, to hold it close and to make it exist forever, where no one can erase it.
“I know how therapeutic it is to laugh so hard you can barely breathe and to feel deeply loved, to sense a smile from your mouth to your feet and to be so aware of your own happiness you can feel it spreading inside, replacing the hurt, the damage, the sorrow, cell by cell, molecule by molecule, inch by inch.”
I was having a tough year in 2004 and being part of the revue reminded me what it was like to be happy. I experienced so many wonderful moments — pearls, if you will — in the 2 1/2 months between our first rehearsal and our final performance. Instead of feeling deprived of joy, I was overflowing with it.
I remember wondering before my first rehearsal if the revue would live up to my romanticized memories of being in shows in junior high and high school. It did. Two years later I questioned whether the second revue experience could possibly be as good as the first. And it was.
And here I am, days after the final curtain on my eighth show. For some cast members, it was their 12th. For others, their first. No matter how many revues are under our belts, we’re all mourning this week.
We take solace in our “Hinsdopoly” Facebook page, where we can watch videos from the show, see photos of our cast parties and read heartfelt messages from our fellow castmates, like this one from first-timer Tim Fowler.
“We should take great care in choosing who we surround ourselves with and how we surround others,” he wrote. “I am so very glad I chose to spend the last couple months with you all and that you chose to let me. I have so thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each and every one of you.”
A couple of weeks ago Slonoff shared an item from Seth Godin’s blog about fellowship, the kind that features mutual support and a shared journey.
“It’s hard to imagine something more reassuring, challenging and productive, all at once,” Godin wrote. That it is.
I am so grateful for the people I shared this journey with, starting with Amanda, Gail, Ricky, Robert, Liz and the guys in the band. Thanks for making us and the set look and sound great (or as good as you could, given what you had to work with!).
Dave, thank you for the sage advice so many years ago — and for the love and generosity and talent you bring to each and every show. We are nothing without you.
And to friends new and old — Alisa, Bill, Carl, Craig, Dan, David, Dick, Ellen, Grace, John, Jon, Jim, Laura, Lynn, Megan, Michelle, Neil, Peggy, Sara, Steph, Susan, Teri and Tim — I’m so glad we had this time together.
I can’t believe it’s time to say “So long.”
— Pamela Lannom is editor
of The Hinsdalean.
Readers can email her at