The Show Must Go On...And Then What?

The Show Must Go On...And Then What?

    Lucia's hard day at work. 

December is my favourite month of the year. My heart practically glows when I hear Christmas carols (or songs that are suspiciously similar but not enough to trigger copyright lawsuits). And the lights on people’s houses? Immediate serotonin.

Plus, in Canadian work culture, once we hit December 20th, everyone who isn’t an essential worker collectively agrees to do the bare minimum necessary to avoid being fired. If anyone complains, the official response is: “Cheer up, fool — it’s Christmas.”

And then, of course, it’s my birthday month.
Every couple of years I end up performing on my actual birthday, and I almost always get a wonderfully chaotic “Happy Birthday” from my colleagues — sometimes even the audience joins in. The most memorable? Counterpoint Orchestra’s Don We Now Our Gay Apparel concert in 2015. Yes. Ten years ago.

      Cantabile Chamber Singers. 

That concert was this bizarre mix of beauty and devastation.
My day had started terribly: our family dog, Marley, suddenly fell very ill. My mom, my sister, and I spent the whole morning at the vet as he showed neurological symptoms that would, soon after, become a brain tumour diagnosis. I left the clinic heartbroken — and then had to go home, put on concert makeup, and prepare to sing a “JOY TO THE WORLD!”-themed concert.

On the program?
Rejoice Greatly from Handel’s Messiah, followed by a Sound of Music medley. But I had nothing. Not a single drop, yet the job was to 'rejoice greatly'.

I honestly didn’t know how I’d get through it. But somehow, I dug deep, held myself together, and sang anyway. It remains one of the hardest professional moments of my life.

Holly?? It’s a Christmas-and-birthday blog post… why are we sad now?

Because this time of year — magical as it is — can also be brutally hard. Performers are juggling exhaustion, real life, family situations, grief, burnout, weather, and twelve different keys of Silent Night. And somehow, the show still has to go on.

So here it is:

How to Perform When You Really Don’t Have It In You

1) Focus on the Nuts and Bolts

If your heart can’t show up, let your technique do the job. Go back to basics: breath, vowels, rhythm, posture, intention. When emotions are overwhelming, the technical scaffolding can carry you through.

2) A Smile Goes a Long Way

Not a fake “everything is fine” stage smile — just a small one that acknowledges your colleagues and reminds you that you’re doing your best, even if your soul is sliding down a wall somewhere.

3) Let Your Art Be Your Escape

Sometimes performing becomes the safest headspace you have. Lean into that temporary world. Find one moment — a phrase you love, a colleague you adore, a funny costume — and let that be your anchor.

4) Don’t Talk About It Until Later

If you know that opening up will turn you into a trembling holiday pudding, do not sign yourself up for emotional torture backstage.
Save the meltdown for after the performance — your home, your car, your bathtub, your group chat. Let the show be a bubble of escapism and deal with the emotional fallout once you've left the venue. 

And then what? 

In the end, the hard stuff we go through doesn’t stay neatly outside the rehearsal room — it sneaks into everything we create. The heartbreak, the stress, the grief, the “I can’t believe I’m doing this right now” moments… they all shape how we interpret characters and how we sing a phrase. Honestly, our pain is often the thing that makes our art feel human instead of just technically correct. It’s the part that lets an audience member suddenly sit up and think, oh… I know that feeling. So even when you’re hanging on by a thread (or a bobby pin), remember that you’re not just getting through a show — you’re making something real, vulnerable, and deeply human.


rejoice greatly:)

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