Thank You and Goodbye

As we make our way much too quickly through closing week, nostalgia tugs at my heartstrings. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful summer. It has been a time of rest and healing for me after a rough junior year in a very rigorous acting program. It has been 3 months of playing and laying around, as well as of growth and learning. I feel blessed to have been a part of the Starlight cast of 2008 and to have had the privilege of working with so many wonderful people and I will never forget the amazing time I had this summer.

Thanks to Ed for giving me this gift of Starlight for my second season, for Tess and the Fairy Godmother and Aunt Eller (yes, even her) and for Milly most of all. Thank you for days and nights of endless rehearsals and for rafting the Canyons and for a Grandma and Grandpa and for fixed tap shoe heels and paychecks and magic tricks. Thank you for your warmth and love and support and faith.

Thanks to Angie (and Dale) for being my adopted family while I am so far from my natural family. Thank you for Sunday dinners and peace signs in church and grocery lists made at inappropriate times and for oreo cookies and lemonade pie and unrealistic 80's movies and too many kittens and a home. Thank you for your big heart and friendship and shared loved of efficiency and home cooking.

Thank you to my fellow cast members for being friends and jokesters and talented and quirky. Thanks for 5 bricks, so's Dorcas Bixby, call me when you get there, effing cheer, Bowzer's Big Bow, who do I love...all of you, how bout stiff upper lip, and mooo. Thanks for NOT poking my baby and for knowing what I meant when I said "raspberry custard and ...apple...sauce" and for nights at the Dog and going to the hot springs and for reading "Oh The Places You'll Go" to me and for holding hands in the circle and promising to stand by me forever as you can count on me to stand by you. I wish you all the best in whatever future endeavors you undertake and hope you will find happiness and success in your lives.

Thank you also to the wonderful patrons we were blessed with this season, both those returning from seasons past and also our new audience members. I hope your evenings with us were as enjoyable and fun for you and your families as they were for us. We have loved making you smile and laugh this summer and hope we brought you the kind of entertainment you'll come back for again and again. Thank you to everyone who found a way to donate to Starlight this year; it is your generosity that keeps our doors open and allows us the opportunity to do what we love.

I can not express my gratitude to everyone who made this summer the unforgettable experience it has been for me. Keep in touch and watch out for me someday. Many thanks and much love.

-Jersey