It was a matinee day, which meant a marathon—part one in the afternoon, part two in the evening. We did three of these each week, a grueling schedule for the actors , but they loved being able to tell the entire story in one go, for an audience that had committed to being at the theater all day.
As I stepped inside the theater, I expected to encounter a half-empty house. But part two was completely full. From curtain up to curtain down, it was a brilliant performance—the actors all at the top of their games, their voices and bodies strong, their spirits high. Something told me not to duck out during the curtain call like I normally would, but instead to stay and watch, and to make a point of looking at each of the actors’ faces as they bowed.
Our answer came swiftly. A few days after we arrived, I began to develop what I suspected were symptoms of the virus: low-grade fever, headache, and difficulty breathing. The fever and headaches vanished within a day, the breathing trouble persisted for a week. Testing was at that point nearly impossible to obtain where we live, and so I hunkered down at home.It’s clear the virus had been spreading around New York for at least a month without detection.