And We're Done

The show was a success.  I'm exhausted and have bags under my eye (what's new?), but the school and the community both seem to be impressed.

It all came together in the last week.  We finally ran the entire show for the first time on Monday night.  Our lighting director worked all day Tuesday, and we ran lights on Tuesday night.  She made a few more adjustments on Wednesday.  Wednesday night, Belle wore her yellow gown for the first time.  (Costuming had just finished it.)  As soon as I saw it, it was like a bit of sunlight shining down on us. 

The elementary schools came to watch part of a day long rehearsal on Thursday afternoon.  (That helped ticket sales!)  We had parent picture night on Thursday, and then the show opened.  Last year, opening night had an audience of 300.  This year, we had an audience of 623.  There were a lot of lighted roses in our audience when Mrs. Potts sang "Tale as old as time...." It was a beautiful sight to see. 

Sadly, I have no photos of the show.  Our journalism teacher will be providing those this week, and I will share them as soon as I can.  However, I will share a few "after" photos, courtesy of one of our mothers.

Here is my wonderful assistant director as the cast presents a few gifts. 

We mugged for a couple of shots. 

And there were lots of hugs.  Besides a wonderful assistant director who handled the music, Little Big Brother did a lot of work with soloists and individual characterizations and set.  I also had a costumer and a part-time choreographer.  I'm not sure this show could have been done with fewer people working on it.

But all of that will be stories for another day. 

Today, I am collapsing in a little heap.  A tired heap!