Evelyn Rowser [fictional character] had an expression for the few seconds before the curtain went up. She called it the holy time. But you don’t have to be an actor to know what the holy time feels like. It’s that breath you take just seconds before you become the person you were meant to become. For some people, it feels like forever. And for some, it’s a moment over far too fast.
— Irv, narrator of the closing of Everwood, Season 1 Episode 13