Tom Sawyer!

I've just finished a very busy two weeks! You may remember that I was helping with CYT's (Christian Youth Theater) Tom Sawyer, and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were the performances. Ok, I'll start at the beginning. Rehearsals went really well. For the first week, mostly my job consisted of keeping the kids quiet. (Which never did quite work. How can they still manage to talk when they're supposed to be sitting spread out on separate pews?) Then last Monday, I learned I was going to be in charge of one side backstage. (I was the "Assistant Stage Director" according to the program.) I'd never done anything like that before! I admit I was a little nervous, but I really enjoyed it. It was my job to get the kids ready, then onstage. I had a stool and a podium, which had my script on it, with all my notes. I really felt official. :) The part I enjoyed the most was working with Crystal, the Stage Director. She's been in CYT forever, and I learned a lot from her. We had a lot of fun too! Here we are with Mrs. Nancy, who did lights. We have our headsets (I guess that's what you'd call it) on. They made things SO much easier! Crystal and I could tell each other who we needed, or anything else, without having to run back and forth, and we could tell Mrs. Nancy when the kids were ready onstage. The performances went so well! They all did such a great job, and I'm so proud of each and every one of them. Some of them were sick, my brothers included. (103 degree fevers!) Zach stayed home for the Thursday performance, and another boy did his lines. Jamey played Huck Finn, so he couldn't stay home. The first two nights, only a few kids were sick. Then came Saturday. When we got there Saturday morning, almost everyone was sick. Before they started, Crystal and I handed out cough drops, and we went through two bags. During intermission, they were dropping like flies. The hall sounded like a hospital! There was no way they could have done it on their own. It was only by a miracle from God that they got through the rest! To see them onstage, you never would have known that any of them felt so miserable, aside from a cough or two. Things went pretty smoothly backstage all three nights, no huge disasters, thank goodness! There were a few behavior issues, some of the little boys just couldn't stay sitting down and quiet. One stuck his head out of the curtain during intermission! Oh well, there's only so much you can do. I really enjoyed the whole thing, and I'm sad it's over. At least there's still the cast party to look foward to! Here are some more pictures.

Me with Andrew and Ellianna (Tom and Becky)

My brothers and me

Getting an autograph from Alyssa (Cousin Mary)

Me and Daniel (Jeff Thatcher)