The night has finally arrived, excitement fills the air, the house is packed...kinda, audience members fill the lobby in anticipation...and perspiration from the junior varsity basket ball tournament going on across the hall... the cast is gathered for a pre show pep talk while the smell of today's lunch wafts down from the leaky cafeteria dishwasher overhead, ah yes, this is high school theater at its finest!!
The benefit was actually a big hit! Nancy, James, Megan, Kim and Nate are all AMAZING!! They sounded great, and put on a super show. There were about 300 people that came. It would probably have been a little better if it hadn't been moved to Memorial Day weekend. Just a scheduling snafu by the principal...apparently Family Home Evening is a legitimate excuse to not schedule anything at the school on Monday nights...can we say "separation of church and state?" But I'm not one to judge.
The show went off swimmingly, no major problems. Until I get my one moment of fame. I hosted the show which went fine, but was given one featured singing line in the finale "One Day More" from Les Miz. It was Nancy and I singing the Thenardier part. Real simple goes like this "Watch em run a muck, catch em as they fall, never know your luck when there's a free for all... Here a little dip there a little touch, most of them are gonners but they won't miss much" Now I'm sure if you read this a few times you would have that memorized... OH not me. For some reason I can get up in front of a crowd of thousands and make a total fool of myself and not get nervous, but if I have to sing I freeze up, especially since we only rehearsed it once, I need copious amounts of rehearsal. I got the first part out... then it came to "Here a little..touch there a little dip...." I said them opposite, and Nancy said them in the right order. Therefore the audience knew we messed up. Nancy started to laugh as we sang, so she was singing all staccato like, and I was holding things out too long, then she put her hand on my back and was shaking in laughter as the rest of the chorus sang. In order to hold my composure I put on a real mean face and stared straight forward. If you notice in the picture I look terrified and Nancy has a huge smile on her face.. It came time for us to sing another part, we just sing our line along with everyone else in the big finish to the song, Nancy brought the microphone up for us to sing, but she was still laughing, and if I would have moved I would have laughed as well, so we both just stood there in silence and she slowly lowered the microphone down. We are such the professionals. Probably best not to put Nancy and I together.
Overall it raised about $3200, not bad, every little bit counts. But honestly I think it was just an excuse for us all to get together and do a little show. It was so much fun to be a part of. I'm glad I got to play with the cool kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment