What country, friends, is this?: The bittersweet celebration of a season's close

A blog from APT's Managing Director, Carrie Van Hallgren, as she experiences her inaugural summer at APT.

My seven year old had just returned, damp and disappointed, from a rained out evening Private Livesperformance. In the darkened room, as I tucked him into the top bunk, he asked whether he would be able to seePrivate Livesagain. I whispered that there were several performances left and that yes, we could exchange our tickets. He was relieved.

'When can I see Pride and Prejudice again?' he murmured, now overtired and struggling to keep his eyes open.

'I'm sorry,' I replied. 'We don't have another chance to see that play.'

And then he sobbed. 'What? But when can I see it again? Will APT do it next year?' I explained to him that we won't be doing Pride and Prejudice again next year and while he may be able to see that play again somewhere else, it would not be the same. That is how live theater works.

And he wailed more. He was, simply, heartbroken.

As we approach the closing of the Up the Hill season, I feel the same way.

Over the next week, whenever I climb that Hill, I know it will be the last time. The last time to giggle at Falstaff's frantic climb into the buck basket. The last time to savor those gorgeous, moonstruck costumes inPrivate Lives. The last time to plead with Othello to reconsider his choice. The last time to relish the final scene in Pride and Prejudice, lit by the stars and the candlelight.

In a world where so many stories can be paused, reversed, streamed and re-streamed on a whim, the tales we spin at APT are different. They are unique to that moon and that whippoorwill, unique to that audience, that breeze, that scene, that sword fight, that proposal, that kiss, that moment.

And when I walk down the Hill on Sunday night, I'm quite certain I will cry as my little boy did. And in the weeks to come I will long for those evenings that I spent in Windsor or in New Orleans. And I'll remember those performances and those scenes and those exquisite, fleeting moments that defined the 2015 season.

When the summer began, many patrons told me that APT was 'the best place in the world.' I met even more who described our Hill as 'magic.'

It is. And it is.

I'm a believer.