It's Opening Night!

So, I just went to my iTunes and started playing "Adiemus." My choir is singing this song, and during it I always close my eyes and reminisce about things. It's an amazing song for those purposes. I love it so much I actually paid money for it. So, usually I reminisce about my days in high school, as that was, and still is, the best time of my life.

Today, right now, I want to key in especially on the musicals I did in high school. Debuting on the Northwestern stage tonight is amazing...one of the top theater institutions in the country. But it can't match the love I had for the Schaumburg stage (as the music starts to swell).

I started freshman year, in "On a Clear Day..." Terrible storyline, songs that grow on you (alright, grow on me), and a fabulous director (John Austin Van Hook). I was in the chorus, but I held a sign in the back during a song...and I danced in "SS Bernard Cohn." I'm not a dancer...my parents and sisters still laugh at that dance in front of the whole school.

(repeat track)

Sophomore year I was doing the gifted project, and I just didn't have enough time to be in "Little Shop of Horrors." It was a very good production, despite the surprise picks for the leads (this would be a theme under the new direction of Timothy McGlynn).

So how could someone who's never been in a show with this director hope to get a large role? (music swells again, and fades). For some reason, though, he cast me as Jean Valjean. "Les Miserables," possibly the best show ever put on by SHS. This is where the memories really get to me. Using that stupid computer program to tap out melodies, going to a jr. high to promote the show, putting more and more baby powder in my hair, my pants falling down during one scene, my pulling the trigger on a gun two seconds before the sound effect. My friends were in this cast...that made it all the more special (music at fortissimo)

Then senior year, the year I shot myself in the foot and established myself as a character actor. Honestly with this figure, how could I ever really be a romantic lead? So I was the sidekick, Benny Southstreet, the guy called upon for laughs (the real comedic character was dreadful...sit down you're rocking the boat in falsetto? good grief). (repeat track) Why the shot foot? I told my friend to audition for the show the day of auditions; he wasn't going to; he got the lead...and did a fabulous job. As did all my friends.

That's the difference. At Schaumburg, I was performing with friends. The people in the cast, I'll barely ever see again, just in passing. The experience will be etched in my memory, but the memories won't be, if that makes sense. I have no attachment to these people. I'm not a theater major, so they have no attachment to me. They haven't been rude, they just haven't been outgoing.

I want to bring them "rain" tonight before the show, but they wouldn't care. Palms rubbing, fingers snapping, (music crescendoing), hands pounding, feet stomping, reverse, and fade. It's wonderful, and I'll never do it again.

Am I nervous? No. I don't get stage fright. I am worried I'll screw up lines since I haven't gotten them right yet. And I'm worried that I'll never be picked as the murderer, because the audience has no reason to pick me. But I'm not stage fraught.

Thursday 8pm...Friday 8pm, 11pm...Saturday 8pm, 11pm...McCormick Auditorium, Norris Center...$5

Thank you,

(end song)

Random Factoid: In the bible, Paul apparently only wrote seven of the letters ascribed to him. The rest are deutero-Pauline, or pascal...apparently.

Pip Pip!