The Final Show...

As many of you know, Saturday also marked the last of our performances for "The King and I." I will tell you that although I had a blast with the show and am glad I did it, because of the size of the role and the size of the cast, I felt a bit of disconnect. Therefore, I was kinda glad that it was over. Our last show went relatively well, with a few issues. The biggest being that one of our children had an "accident" onstage during "March of the Siamese Children" (the 2nd scene of the show). None of us wives knew exactly what happened, only that there was a wet spot onstage. It was the kids that informed us what that wet spot was...ewwwww! And what was the worst is that in the show, there was a lot of bowing with our faces close to the floor, and while they wiped it up as soon as they found out about it, it couldn't really be mopped/sanitized til intermission, so we all did our best to steer clear of the spot. We also had some instrumental issues. First of all, the whole second weekend, we didn't have a clarinet (she had a prior commitment) and they never did find another one. Secondly, we got in a new percussionist for that weekend, who hadn't really looked at the music until the pickup rehearsal. Thirdly, one of our trumpets was gone that last night, so all of this spelled disaster during the ballet. Instruments were rushing, got ahead, lost in the music, and generally strained playing. As I said before, though, overall, it was a good show.

After the show, there was a party at my friend Matt's house. He and his son were in the show and were an absolute blast to work with. I know them from school, but "getting to know them" (sorry...bad pun) was fun! Anyways, they had the best house for a party-pool, bar, patio, trampoline, basketball court, etc.-were all being used to accommodate our large cast. At the party, the highlight had to be when our director, Tory, came up to talk to me. The night before, after hearing he might not be able to make our last show Saturday night, we gave him his gift from the cast and crew-a children's book called "Getting to Know You: Rodgers and Hammerstein Favorites." We had everyone write something personal to him and posted a cast picture in the front for him to remember us by. When we gave it to him, he got a little misty, which I was surprised by, but didn't think much of. At the party, he came up to me, gave me a huge hug, thanked me again for organizing the gift getting/signing and asked me, "Did you know I collect children's books?" What? I told him no, but that I thought with all of the children in our cast, that it would make a great gift. "It was a perfect gift. I was pleasantly surprised by it and surprised that I didn't already have it-I've got shelves of children's books. I love it...thanks again!" AWWWWW! Tear ;) Mom and I stayed for a bit, but wanted to get home at a somewhat reasonable hour since we'd be back tearing down the set the next morning, so we said our goodbyes and went on our way. A good experience overall...full of good friends and good fun, but someday, maybe someday, I'll get a lead (I've been told I'd make a good Marian the librarian from "The Music Man"...who knows???)!