A bad dress rehearsal means a good performance

"This is the director speaking. Listen up! Keep your arms to your side! Sing louder! Smile! Quite moving around! Always watch me! But most importantly...have fun!"

Last Thursday was the long awaited 5th Grade Musical. We had been practicing for 6 long weeks. We had solo tryouts. We had speaking tryouts. We learned choreography. We had props. We had music. We had lighting. The speakers had memorized their parts. Now, we just had one more task before the big night...dress rehearsal!

I ran around all day trying to make sure that everything was in its place and everyone that needed to be there would be there. I copied off programs and then had to copy brand new ones when the first ones turned out to be wrong. I was stressed out of my mind with everything in preparation for the big night. At 1:15 our dress rehearsal would begin. After lunch, the 5th graders would meet me over at the stage and we would begin. Everything was all set...or so I thought.

The sound man arrived 15 minutes late and took another 15 to get set up. Finally everything is all set up, the first song starts and then quickly ends when the soloists don't know when to start singing or how to sing in a microphone. So we start again and it went a little bit better. Then the first song is over...it's the actors turn, but they haven't practiced on stage before or with props yet. They are confused out of their mind about what to do. Next song comes on and the 5th graders don't know which part comes next or which words to sing or when to start and you can hardly hear them because they're not singing loud enough. I had thought that they were all ready and knew all their songs, but now everything was going wrong and I just couldn't figure out why.

We are finally 4 songs into our dress rehearsal and I realized what was wrong. The background vocals that they had always practiced with had somehow disappeared from the music and the 5th grade was singing all their songs completely by themselves. That was why they didn't know the words and when to start and stop singing. They had grown so use to singing it with the background vocals that they were relying on the help of other children their own age to back them up. I was stressed out of my mind when I figured it out. I honestly didn't think that they could do it. They are good, but not that good. However, the sound man said he didn't know why it happened and he didn't know how to fix it. So no background vocals for this performance.

I told the class about the problem and without any hesitation, their faces and postures changed and they were up for the challenge. They were ready to face this battle head on and prove to me that they could do it. Well, it was by far one of the worst dress rehearsals of my life, but I knew these kids were not going to give up without a fight. I gave them a little pep talk at the end and told them they were going to do great, but inside I was just about ready to burst out into tears. I had worked so hard and this was something that I love to do. It was going to be my first big performance and well.....I wanted to prove to myself and the rest of the school that I could put on a great performance.

I prayed and prayed when I got home that afternoon. I prayed that even if everything went completely wrong (and I was expecting it to) that at least the kids would have fun, the parents would be proud, and God would be glorified.

I arrived at school at 6:00. The program started at 7:00. Kids started coming in at about 6:15. They were looking pumped and ready, but I was shaking in my shoes nervous. By 6:50 every 5th grader was present. I took a last minute bathroom break and a quick potty prayer and headed back in to give one last "good luck" to the 5th graders. We prayed together and headed downstairs for our performance.

With smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts, the first song started and the kids sung as loud as they could. They hit every note. They knew every word. They had smiles on their faces. They stood still. And my goodness...they had fun. The rest of the night went on without a single glitch.

Last Thursday was the long awaited 5th Grade Musical. It was said to have been the best 5th grade musical ever put on at Santiago Christian School. And their director could never be so proud!