The Play is the thing...

One down, one to go. The church play wrapped up this weekend. These things always amaze me in the end. You pull your hair, nash your teeth, bargain with God and in the end they all work out and the only thing anyone ever remembers is that it was wonderful... But I am not everyone. These are the things I will remember.

Huge Pink Castles! When I sat down with "the artist" she asked me what color The King's Castle should be. I said, "something warm, not grey, maybe like a brick mauve or purplely red. I just don't want it to be cold grey stone, that is so austere." She showed me paint samples of light turquoise, dark turquoise, and a dark mauve pink. I said, "Perfect!" The base paint for all of this was a bright Barbie Doll Pink. The Mauve ended up being the detail color for drawing the outline of the bricks. There was little to no turquoise and everything else was PINK! For two weeks I waited for the pastor to hand us our hat for hosing down his pulpit with pepto bismol. In the end no one cared and it looked very whimsical...

"It's about the process..." Over and over I kept being told by the higher ups that the most important part of this whole thing was the process that we go through to produce it and that the product was secondary. But if as the writer and director if I actually approached it from that standpoint, the product is guaranteed to suck and then what difference does the process make? I mean if the process is more important than the product and the product is lousy doesn't that also mean the process was lousy? Or what about the "process" for those who pay to see the show? Is that fair? Didn't Paul say we are to run as though to win the race? While I agreed that what we gain from the process is the bigger treasure than the applause, the point of doing a play (even in church) is not simply the process...

"Oh Please, how can I help?" said the prop manager. She tended to be a bit late at first, but she provided a lot of supplies. The she disappeared for a week. The day of church preview she showed up 2 minutes after performance started with none of the things we needed and blinking like she was hung over. She wanted us (based on her actions) to coo and fuss over her because she had dragged herself to church. Then she shows up 15 minutes late the night of dress rehearsal and says, "oh, give me just ten minutes, and I'll make those things we talked about for the set..." Disappears for almost an hour. I find her making something that won't fit with the set, is not useful and is not even finished. "Nevermind, I tell her. Just organize the props please." "Okay." Nothing happens. The day of the performance she shows up early, all sweet and helpful. "I am so sorry I dropped the ball. What do you need?" We do the whole live and learn speech. Then I aske her, "I need all the props organized and I need roofs for the town set." "Done." She organized all the props and then stepped out for just a second to grab some dinner. She came back two hours later. There were no roofs on the town in either production. Oddly enough she slipped my mind when I thanked people on stage at the last performance. She was offended.

When I was a little girl and I used to sing, my Dad would come up behind my, pop me on the back of the head and say, "you are not Amy Grant, don't sing like her, sing like yourself." Unfortunately I am not allowed to hit other people's children. This child insisted on screwing up his face, closing his eyes and "belting" out his lyrics while pulling his hand back in a fist and bending one knee. This strained and messed up his vocals, not to mention he tended to mess up his words or forget them all together. His mom was my music director and she insisted that he was amazing, needed to sing and was doing a terrific job. Eventually we just turned his mic off during the performance and moved him to the side in the choreography. Great actor though, when he remembered his lines. His mom said he had been on Broadway as a young child...

As the children danced on stage for the final song I looked back over my shoulder and saw that the spot light operators were doing the same dance moves in the back of the sanctuary.

The play was wonderful. The kids did a great job. I learned a lot about the process.

One down, one to go... Oh Romeo, Romeo!