Ah....the Monday of Dress Rehearsal Week. This week, my high school theater department will have our Dress Rehearsals for our upcoming production of THE KING AND I. For those of you who have never been in a high school stage production, you surely have missed out on an experience soon not be forgotten: relentless hours of toiling to correct endless lists of technical challenges, cast members who choose to spazz and go Diva on you, endless and needless delays that you prepare for months to avoid but happen anyway, lost keys, late parents, broken set pieces (of course which are BORROWED from other theater groups), ripped zippers on- you got it- borrowed costume pieces, students who flit back and forth beyond your wildest imagination (but who can never seem to be at the place they should be for their set changes), skipped meals, unwanted visitors who want to get in on the "fun" backstage...the "fun" seems endless.
But then, miraculously, Opening Night comes and sets begin to move smoothly between scenes, actors actually project, become their characters, and tell the story you've been drumming into their heads for months, props appear out of nowhere for the first time at the right time, cast members actually are quiet backstage, and audiences again are moved by seeing their children become Story Tellers who take them to places impossible to visit in real life. They are touched by the truths their Story Tellers reveal and discreetly wipe away tears of pride and joy as they see their Story Tellers bow in recognition of their months of effort. They suddenly no longer resent the director who demanded so much of their Story Tellers and actually smile and speak warmly to the director in the thrill of the afterglow of a successful production (although earlier that week the director's picture had been drawn with horns on his head and was riddled with dart holes). The Story Tellers experience the thrill of goal-setting, endurance, persistance, and success, and realize that anything in life worthwhile demands our very best effort for a long time.
And the director gets to go home to his wife!
5 comments:
perhaps you should define what "flit" means to those who aren't familiar with what it means! can't wait to see it!
Man - I was just filled with flashbacks of about 6 years of my life. Oh the flashbacks. You forgot to mention the insanely fast costume changes that happen backstage despite doing it in front of many a person of the opposite sex - we are all a family after all. I remember trying to block Sandy in Grease and tug on her crazy tight leather pants and zipping them up with the PLIERS we had on hand for the last costume change. Man I miss AP Drama III (the class they had to invent for all of us who fell in love and took class after class). Cleave Davis was my teacher - what an interesting character himself!
With Love - Diva Mary Warren
kenny,
looking forward to seeing the fruit of all of your labor of love?!
it's gonna be fun!
~laura
can't wait to hear how it went!
Have fun this weekend! Break a leg!
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