Show week!

This is show week. The kids have been practicing all day each day and are excited for opening night this Thursday. Even though I’m not a big fan of musicals I love this one – Seussical the Musical. It’s a combination of several Dr. Seuss stories, including Horton Hears a Who and The Cat in the Hat. The songs are fun and the costumes and hair are insanely creative.

I’ve been helping the production manager all year and I’m continuing that this week which means I’ve been at the performing arts center for the past two days for many, many hours. Sean’s there playing piano and conducting the orchestra and the kids are there, too, of course. It’s a true family venture and I’ve loved every minute of it.

There’s a lot of talk about the kids experiencing a major let-down after the final curtain drops. I can definitely see that will be an issue for my two Whos and one Jungle Creature. But I think Sean and I will feel a little of that disappointment as well. I’ve always wanted to work on something with Sean but with our very disparate skill sets I was afraid we’d never find anything to do together. This has been a perfect fit – he’s the rehearsal accompanist and I’m the assistant to the production manager. We’ve spent every Friday together over the last six months and when the play closes he’ll go back to working Friday afternoons.

The way it all came about was nothing short of miraculous. A few weeks before play practice started GM announced Sean’s plant would go to a four-day work week. That left Sean free on Fridays, the same day as play practice. Sean knew the plant would go back to a five-day work week in the spring, just about the time the play ended. He felt confident he’d have his Fridays off for the duration of the play’s production and volunteered to play for them.

Little did we know someone at headquarters would get his panties in a wad and decide Sean and his engineers should go back to a five-day work week in December (even though production was still on a four-day week – don’t even get me started), leaving three months of play practice in question. Enter Sean’s boss, Jeff, who saw value in what Sean was doing and made arrangements for Sean to take half days off in order for him to continue playing for the show. (FYI – Jeff is my hero!)

So this is our last week, and as much as I’m looking forward to next week and getting more sleep (both nights this week my head didn’t hit the pillow until after 2 am) I will miss the camaraderie with the staff, the fun with the kids, the amazing, creative music. But most of all I’ll miss seeing Sean play his heart out, doing what God gifted him to do.
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Here's a sneak peak at the show from yesterday's dress rehearsal!

Sean in the pit

Rebecca as Cindy Lou Who with the Grinch

Michael as Mr. Mayor with Mrs. Mayor and some Who children

Amy the frog and some fellow jungle creatures