When an audience member writes you after seeing you in performance, you are always touched to your core. You reconnect with why you became an actor in the first place, rededicate yourself to impossible standards of truth-telling and renew your determination to keep on doing it. And sometimes you are even blessed beyond measure.
 A gentleman from Fort Myers wrote:. March 19, 2001 Dear Ms. Crow: Yesterday afternoon (Sunday) I sat in the front row center of the Arcade theater waiting for the performance of W;t to begin, thinking moodily about how this was going to be a pretty long, dull afternoon, particularly with all those March Madness basketball games I could be watching. But I want you to know that right from the beginning -- from the concealed anger of your opening words to the bright, loving light of the end -- I was absolutely spellbound. Your stunning performance was not only magnificent, it was heroic. Robert Cacioppo, Pamela Hunt and the entire company can be very proud. It takes courage to produce something so deeply moving and serious as W;t. It is not theater to entertain. It is theater that projects a profound message of love. I congratulate all of the company. But I want to especially congratulate you because I was not only touched by your portrayal, I found redemption in it. Seventeen years ago my wife of 39 years died of ovarian cancer. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! A dear woman wrote, on a card she designed herself on her computer featuring a hand drawn ball cap with a star on it:. Dear Kim, My husband and I are season ticket holders with the Florida Repertory Theatre. We always look forward with great anticipation to each play; but, our hopes were far surpassed yesterday when we saw you in W;t. There really aren't words to describe what we thought of your performance. To say you were 'great' would be an understatement. We are still marveling at the script you had to learn, at your interpretation, at your presentation and at the deep feeling you put into this. The play is powerful ... we left the theatre transformed. You must be exhausted at the end of each performance. We certainly do hope we here in Fort Myers will have the extreme pleasure of seeing you perform again ... soon! Thank you for giving so much of yourself!  Handwritten by a mother: April 8, 2001 To Kim Crow, Bob Cacioppo and cast -- Thank you, thank you, thank you for your extraordinary production, 'W;t' -- Kim, your performance (which was all too real to be called simply a 'performance') brought back the events of 1993 in a way that,hopefully, you'll never know. My daughter, Meg, who was diagnosed with lymphoma -- she lives in Minnesota. I live here in Florida. I was there with her for the operation which was almost precisely eight years ago -- the Monday before Easter -- but I couldn't be with her throughout the grueling months of chemotherapy. While there that week, I watched as she lay on the cold metal 'slab' which moved her through the CAT-scan -- (Why do those rooms have the cold-blue fluorescent tubes, giving an emotional chill to what is already a frightening experience?) Seeing, in 'W;t', a view of what she went through -- not 'alone' like Dr. Vivian Bearing but with a husband who couldn't 'deal with it'; an aloneness more lonely than being 'alone' -- I cried for my daughter all over again, and I guess for myself, too, for not having been able to be with her. There are many aspects surrounding the disease, dying and death: I'm sure just about everyone who saw the play has been touched by its themes at some time in their lives -- But I want to thank you for a catharsis which has been waiting in the wings for me these past eight years. -- My daughter lives! Thankfully, she's been cancer-free these years. We talked, after seeing 'W;t' and she's now able to deal with the emotional toll -- We talked before, all through the months of chemo, but so many things stood in the way of understanding back then -- This was good! Her life is good -- she has since written a sort of play of her own, encompassing not only her own feelings but the responses of her family and friends -- a 'working through,' if you will -- and this, our most recent conversation, thanks to your 'Dr. Bearing', Kim, and your production, Bob, brought a level of understanding and closure for us both -- Thank you, one and all, from this member of your audience and her daughter. Sincerely. |  A gentleman from Bokelia wrote: April 1, 2001 Dear Ms. Crow, After viewing your performance In Wit las evening, I had to start today by writing to you. I am 72 years old and a long time ardent theatre goer. This is my first fan letter. Never have I experienced being so absorbed and pulled into a performance as you accomplished with me by your performance of Vivian Bearing, Ph. D. You personified the art of acting in that performance. Beyond the role you so magnificently portrayed, you caused me to wonder and try to understand how an actor can give so much of himself to the role. I cannot fathom how you so this role day after day for weeks on end. Your performance was a classic. My wife who underwent 10 months of chemotherapy in 1988 wondered at how you portrayed the essence of the chemotherapy patient's feelings. I often saw in her, then, the despair that you portrayed on stage. I am sure you learned in preparing yourself for the role, that a cancer patient's greatest tool towards hanging in there is hope. We learned that was best accomplished by having short term goals, She started chemo in January and had just received, as a Christmas present from our son, tickets to the Phantom for the coming September. At the time we lived in Orlando, Fl. She made it a goal that she would see that performance in New York. We had to arrange that she be admitted to a hospital in New York in order that she may be able to receive her scheduled chemo. We saw the show. Her other goal was to have another martini in life. Tonight we will toast you with a good Bombay gin martini. We are off next week to the Los Angeles area to visit with our son... who is .... at the Pasadena Playhouse. During our three weeks there we will see much theatre, thanks to him. I know nothing will top Saturday nights experience, which was made possible by your performance. Viva la theatre and milles bravas to you. Again, thank you.  A couple from Fort Myers wrote: April 11, 2001 Dear Ms. Crow, Last Saturday my wife, Linda, and I were privileged to sit in awestruck appreciation during your performance in W;t. Being an English major, I am tempted to seek to employ high-blown rhetoric to express our tearful enjoyment of your portrayal of Dr. Bearing. To do so would beggar the description of the quality of your work. Simply let me say, we were captivated by the unblinking honesty of the characterization of many health care personnel, the thoughts, fears, denials that visit themselves on seriously ill people. Your work well illustrated what comes to every human mind ... when they contemplate the time when the Grim Reaper comes to collect his irresistible due. This bleak fear tortures the minds of all who inhabit the earth, irrespective of what anyone says ... 'There are no atheists in foxholes!' Your exit in the final scene was magnificent. We are Christians, and we long for the day when life's storms have ended and we will be able to step into the brilliant light and love of our Redeemer's presence. All this you brought flawlessly to mind as you 'exited the stage of life and stepped smilingly into immortality.' Well, well done! We look forward to the opportunity to enjoy any future plays in which you may appear. Godspeed.  Dear Kim, I met you one night after rehearsals for WIT in Jacksonville, Florida when I came to see my friend Jayne who was in the production. The next night I came to see it and I was so moved by your performance. It is very rare that in the theatreas an actor myself-- that I think of moments in my own life and the lives of my family when I am watching a performance but watching you as Vivian battling and then dying of cancer I was moved. One particular moment in my life that thought of watching the show was when the machines were going off was when I was a kid and my father was in the hospital also battleing cancer --who is now in remission and has been for almost 15 years-- when his machines went off and nobody told this little boy what was happening to his father. I just want to thank-you so much for making a night out at the theatre I moving experience. To me that is what theatre is all about, touching others lives. I hope to see you someday soon somewhere on stage. Love, |
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