April 14th, 2013

I don't even know what to do with myself right now. After four and a half months of some of the hardest work I've ever done, my high school's production of Les Miserables was absolutely astounding. Our final show out of seven was last night, and frankly, it was Broadway-quality. We were all crying backstage before the show (I don't think there was a dry eye in the cast), and some of us continued to cry while we were performing. Luckily, Les Mis is a show where that's totally in-character.
Last week Wednesday we had a preview rehearsal-show where kids from local elementary and middle schools came in to see us perform. Before we started that day, I took a little bottle of blessed salt water and sprinkled it around the stage to invoke creative positive energy and all that good jazz. Before each show, I also called on the Lady Minerva and Lord Dionysus, Goddess and God of theatre, to keep everyone's voices sounding awesome, to keep the microphones working, to have the lights be correct, for the orchestra pit to be awesome... The list goes on. It was probably a five to ten minute little ritual of mine, and in the end, it totally paid off; in my time at that school, we performed The Phantom of the Opera and West Side Story, both of which were fantastic shows, but Les Miserables blew everything my school has ever done out of the water. Almost a third of the cast is graduating this year, and I'll miss everyone terribly - if you're reading this, it'd be great if you could send them all some positive energy for their life at college and beyond.