SILENCE and BREATH The very first thing we do, before we speak, is to look out at the beautiful view and take a lovely, deep breath. Let it linger. Make sure our eyes capture every face, vista, sigh, mood. Just breathe it all in. It may feel like a million years, but that opening moment of breath and silence before we speak, is vital.

Then, only when the audience is with us, do we speak our first, beautifully crafted and memorized opening line.

A few years ago I was in rehearsal for a play and the Artistic Director reminded me that, “The audience doesn’t catch the first minute or so of any play. They are turning off their phones, checking out the program, unwrapping cough drops.”

But! That just can’t be so! The first line of any play, book, article, poem, is crafted to launch the entire experience! And this play, The Other Place by Sharr White, about a scientist who studies early-onset dementia and who finds herself with early-onset dementia, demanded that the first line be heard: “The first glimmer of it came on a Friday.” THE FIRST GLIMMER OF IT CAME ON A FRIDAY! Wow!

Opening night, I entered the stage, found my light, and I waited. I wanted to make sure everyone was with me. I wanted to make sure they caught that shimmering and meaningful line.

It’s like tossing someone a ball—we make eye contact and make sure they are with us before we let go.

There are so many reasons for that silence, that breath…Read on.