Drama Club Performance!

I can't believe it's over!!!!

Both plays went very well- I wish I could have seen them from the front! :)  Everyone did so well. Thank you guys for being in Drama Club and for all the effort you put into memorizing your lines and movements, projecting, and coming up with costumes!

At the dress rehearsal on Friday we were getting really worried. I hadn't planned nearly enough rehearsal time for either play, so we didn't get to run through the whole play for either New Clothes, Same Old Lie or The Kidnapping- but that wasn't the biggest problem. The room where we were had the big air conditioning units for the entire building in it- and they were really loud. They almost completely drowned out the actors' voices, and we weren't able to turn them off. The thermostat was in a locked box on the wall, and the key was only in the possession of the City of Mascoutah! When the room was cool enough so that the a/c would turn off, it was perfect- we could hear everyone's lines very well. The problem was that the room wasn't always cool enough, so they were on most of the time. We didn't have any microphones, and even if we did we wouldn't be able to plug them in- there weren't any working outlets in the room! Papa was making phone calls to see if there was anywhere else we could do the performance, and Mom, Mrs. June, and Mrs. Phillips were trying to figure out how we could 'trick' the air conditioner into 'thinking' it was cooler, so it would turn off. Mrs. Phillips had the idea of putting an ice chest under the thermostat during the performance. We weren't sure whether it would work, and Papa had gotten permission to use one of the rooms at Zion LC, but we had already rehearsed in this space, gotten set up, and advertised with this address- we decided to stay put and pray that the a/c units would stay off. Papa also brought some choir sound boards to put in the place of a backdrop to help the sound bounce off. We dismissed everyone, finished setting up, went home, and kept on praying!!!

Saturday: Cast members arrived at our house around 9:30. It was CRAZY trying to get makeup and costumes on for 16 people in 30 minutes, but thanks to tons of help from moms it got done and we were all at the Civic Center by about 10:10. We had lots of people setting up chairs while Haleigh and I got everything set up, prayed with the cast backstage, and other last-minute prep.

Papa was going to pray to begin the performance and also run the video camera, but Saturday morning he woke up dizzy. He managed to get to the Civic Center, but then he was feeling really bad and had to go back home. I asked Mom to run the video camera and Mr. Phillips to pray for us, and we got started. The performance wasn't perfect- we had a few awkward moments with forgotten lines and curtain problems- but it was very good! The a/c stayed off the entire time- praise God! (Of course, that made it pretty hot even with all the fans, but it was nice to get back home and cool off.) After the performance, and after we cleaned up the props/set/costumes/etc., everyone went to our house for a potluck lunch/party!

I still can't believe it's over. Wow! Praise God for how well the performance went, and for how fun this was! I've had so many people saying "let's do this again next summer!" and I must admit, I'd love to do it again. :) We'll see if it works out!

(pictures to come)