This weekend was Shrek: The Musical at the school, to benefit the Grand Opera House restoration. At this point I’m not too keen on restoring the old opera house with its small stage and limited seating. The auditorium at the high school is much bigger, has more curtains and lighting, better sound, much more room backstage, better climate control, etc. I’d rather just keep putting on shows there.

But the show itself was great. It had more laughs and fewer dull spots than last year’s show. The Shrek, Fiona and Donkey actors were pretty good. The ensemble was excellent. This was really a great show for ensemble work, with all the different fairy tale creatures and costumes. Emma was great as the fairy godmother. The highlight for me though was Elsa’s solo in “I Know It’s Today.” I’d been waiting four long years to hear her sing again in a musical, and she didn’t disappoint. She has the grace, poise, and voice of a person 20 years older than herself.

Jack and I ran backstage duties. Jack was put in control of the back black curtains and he took that job seriously. He made his own notes on the stage directions sheet and did great. I knew that we were going to miss a lot of practices so I didn’t sign up for any acting parts. I don’t know if I would have acted anyway; it’s so much work (for me) just to get to a level to match the other, better actors on stage. I did enjoy being on stage and having a few lines though. But this year there were so fewer adult actors compared to last year. This year was mostly high school age and little kids. I’m afraid if I tried out for a spot in next year’s show that I’d be given some huge adult role.

Like I said in my last post, I felt bad that we took so many vacations and missed so many practices, just because I felt like I was letting down all the other backstage folks. The two people I worked with did all the work. I just basically held the curtains open for them. I didn’t have a clue what the stage directions were. I did hold up the Shrek house from falling over a second time, on the last show. So I guess that’s good lol.