Productions

Saturday night, Denise came down from Duluth, and the two of us went to RTC's production of The Wizard of Oz.

Elizabeth has loved the Wicked Witch of the West since we were kids, and was overjoyed to land the role. Opening night, she was actually in terrible pain and ended up going to the hospital and skipping the afterparty, but she still went through with it. I described her to Ross as an alloy of steel, iron, and determination. When Elizabeth decides that she's going to do something, she is GOING to do it, no matter what tries to stop her.

And, as usual, she is absolutely smashing onstage. A splendid Wicked Witch indeed.

Early on in the days of rehearsals, we were discussing the possibilities of adding some slight alterations to the characters. Since this was a performance celebrating the anniversary, this seemed unlikely - we figured that the director would rather recreate than put new spins on it. But, we started speculating about accents.

"Zeh Vicked Vitch of Zeh Vest!"

"Vehrrrrrrrr uff to zee zeh vizzard! Zeh vunderful vizzard ov Oz! 'e really iz a viz of a viz, if ever a viz zehr vahz!"

You get the idea.

"If ever o' ever a viz zehr vahz, zeh vizzard is vahn becahz becahz..."

The rest of the household may have gotten tired of us at this point.

"Becahz becahz becahz becahz beCAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHZ!" *beat. beat.* "BECAHZ OF ZEH VUNDERFUL SZINGS 'E DOES!"

During intermission, Denise taught me the basic step for the tango. Not that this has anything to do with the show, or even being at a show - this is just another standard part of being in my family. :) We went across the way to practice a couple of swing steps, to the entertainment of a mom and her two kids.

Sunday morning was Mom's show. There's really no word for this other than "Christmas Production." It goes beyond a concert. It gets bigger every year. She was referring to it online as something like "My Big Fat Greek Christmas Lollapalooza." I didn't detect any Greek references in it (y'know, aside from that business of having substantial portions of the New Testament being originally written in Greek), but it was pretty cool.

A friend once expressed cheerful annoyance with me for bringing him to one of these, because that one was more interactive and he'd said I'd tricked him into going to church. This one, not so much - but a LOT of talent onstage.

One that stuck out was their rendition of "Joseph's Song" - the original is by Michael Card, and I hadn't heard it in probably ten years. For several of the characters, they introduced more of a storyline, and got them comforting actors in the audience who were struggling with their own life situations. In their story, Joseph and Mary had grown up together, and had always planned on getting married, and not only did he feel completely betrayed by the person he thought was his best friend, but suddenly everything he'd planned for his life was called into question. Then, later, he's confronted by the huge responsibility of being a father, and he can't even think about how much bigger a responsibility it is to be a father to God.

Mary, in turn, was comforting a mother who'd lost her firstborn to SIDS.

The thief who died next to Jesus talked with a man who couldn't forgive his father, or accept his father's forgiveness.

Every year, there's one person in the Christmas story that I grab onto, mentally, and end up seeing a lot of the Christmas story through their eyes. Last year, it was the kings from the east. Just delved into it, seriously exploring who they were, what the stars meant to them, why they came if they weren't familiar with Jewish prophecy (or if they were, did they believe it, and how did they get their hands on it), you get the idea. Before that, it was Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist. This year, I guess it's going to be Joseph. I don't really pick this, I just end up hearing the story, and one piece grabs me in a different way. The different people each got about equal time in the show, but Joseph's story maybe relates a little more to things that I'm dealing with, or need to understand.

And, to cap off the production list, Denise is Stage Managing (borderline unheard-of for a freshman, apparently) at UMD that opens in January, and I have the concert this week!