Victoria Noe

Award-winning Author, Speaker, Activist

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The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On
Feb 03, 2016 by Victoria Noe
Coming from a theatre background, I learned early on that ‘the show must go on’. Once I had a severe allergic reaction a few hours before going onstage. I made it through the show, though I couldn’t sing worth a damn. If you watched the amazing live production of Grease that aired Sunday night, you probably heard about Vanessa Hudgens, who played Rizzo: her father died less than 24 hours before the broadcast. She went on as scheduled and the whole show was dedicated to him.

Less than a week after my father died, I was 400 miles away making a presentation at a national conference. I didn’t want to be there. The organizers assured me I didn’t have to be there....

Grieving Your Friend Onstage

Grieving Your Friend Onstage
Jul 18, 2014 by Victoria Noe
capitalfringe.orgIt’s hard for people to express their grief in words. While crying may be acceptable in some settings, it’s not easy to find a setting to discuss your grief. And for young people, who have not experienced a lot of loss, it can be doubly hard.A University of Maryland theatre major worked through the loss of three of his friends in the only way he knew how: onstage.Brendan O’Connell lost three of his friends in a drunk-driving accident in the summer of 2011. One had been his best friend for 15 years, next-door neighbors who grew up together.His grief was compounded by the knowledge that he’d begged off riding with them that night. When he returned to college, he was,...