Last week my wife had asked me if I wrote about Drama Fest. I told that I had chosen to write about my birthday instead. "What can I write about Drama Fest? Everything went great. What more can I really say?”
There was quite a lot more to say. Last week was just too soon. Drama Fest had just ended and I was too close to the events to reflect and relate. Foremost, though I can say how proud my wife and I were of our cast and crew. They were a class act from start to finish.
This performance presented us with several firsts. In all my years of directing, I’ve never had to postpone a show two weeks, with one of those weeks being spring break. When we realized that we would have to do this, my wife and I were nervous to say the least. Would the kids lose their lines? Would they forget where to stand and what to do?
We need not have worried. Our first rehearsal back from spring break was almost as flawless as our last rehearsal before spring break. The kids were prepared and professional and ready to go. They didn't skip a beat.
This production was also the first time that either my wife or I had to worry about a student having a tonsillectomy a week before the show. For the first two out of the three dress rehearsals, we forbade the student to speak. We brought in a possible understudy to learn the lines and to read them while the student silently acted on stage. During the final dress, we sat on pins and needles waiting to hear if the vocal cords were recovered enough to perform. They were, and student gave an inspired performance. I doubt anyone outside us and the student’s family had a clue about this.
This production represented another first: we performed four times in a single day. Last year was first in that we performed three times in a day, but this year both the head start and the preschool classes wanted to watch as well, so we added another show. I was worried about their being enough seating, but again, I need not have been concerned. I learned something remarkable about pre-school age kids: they fit quite comfortably two-to-a-seat. Next year, we can invite the other town preschool and the any of the day cares. With two kids sharing a single seat, there is plenty of room.
Thinking over this remarkable cast, I would venture that this group of kids were the first I have worked with to have learned their parts so early and so thoroughly. Last year had been the best up to that point in my career, and I attribute the success the students had learning our parts to my wife professional experience as an actor. In both years, she has from day one instilled in the kids the importance of being prepared. She taught the students memorization techniques and we spent a lot of time at the beginning working lines with the kids.
Last year, we were “off book” in record time, and this year we were “off book” even sooner. But best of all, the emphasis on working your lines each and every day paid huge dividends when we had to stop rehearsals over spring break. The kids must have taken my wife’s instruction to heart. Their preparation was evident from the moment we started up again.
This year’s Drama Fest will always be special for us, both for the firsts and for the relationships we built with the cast and crew. The hardest part is dealing with the fact that it is now over. We will never work with this exact cast of this exact project ever again. That is the sorrow of the theater. When things go great, as they did this year, the final curtain is all the more bittersweet. As much as we look forward to doing it again next year with new kids in a new show, we will never forget the amazing “First Act” of 2010.
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