Performing at the June Bug

Sunday night, Spencer and I headed off to Floyd, VA--by way of Lesley's house--to perform for the people of Floyd. We had a great ride down to Lesley and Robert's house. We were supposed to be running lines for the upcoming performance, but we did a lot of talking and we're friends again. Which is good, because I don't know if you noticed--but I really missed him!! There are just some people that I need in my life, and despite his ability to drive me crazy, he brings light and sunshine into my life. (It's a corny metaphor, but it's true!)

We arrived at the house and Lesley was waiting up. The dear woman. She looked so cute in her perfect house that they just BOUGHT. I love it! It's huge!!

The next day, we began running lines and rehearsing scenes. The show consisted of a slew of great scenes and musical numbers. We also interspersed some monologues. The June bug Center was paying us to do a show that they could film and publish segments of on their website. The mood all day was relaxed, but the nerves were just under the surface. I didn't know how to convince them that I had chosen the specific scenes and monologues for a reason--and that things were going to be great.

Our accompanist was a dear--but she was NOT an accompanist. She kept trying to play all the notes and was slower than we needed her to be. That was frustrating, but I was so grateful to have her.

Dennis and Mary--the folks who run the theatre--were generous and lovely. The interns working at the theatre were sweet and worshipful, which makes one feel good about oneself. (adoration has such a lovely effect on the soul!)

So, we come to the performance--Spencer and I opened the show with "Anything you can do I can do better"--which had never quite gone well during the rehearsals that day. That night--we nailed it. As we got off stage, the previously skeptical Spencer said to me "that was amazing!"

Lesley followed that up with a number from Aykbourn's Round and Round the Garden which was phenomenal. And the show continued on like this for the next hour.

I found myself carried away in so many moments. I accidentally referred to Lucius Pella as Lucius Malfoy and had to stop the scene and go back--it's television, so I can do that! For the most part, I was carried away by awe at the amazing talents of Lesley and Spencer. I know we only had a day to rehearse--and really--not even that. BUT, most of the scenes and songs we did, we'd been rehearsing for years on our own. It was such a privilege to be able to see all that hardwork and passion come together for one evening.

They're making a fancy dvd of the event, so I should be able to post stuff from it some time in the next few months. Hopefully, I'll feel good about it after watching the dvd. We had two cameramen for the show! It was nervewracking. And we got to wear little tv mikes. I was afraid to make any noise off stage. But enough about it! It was good and fun and I'm very glad we did it.