Pippin!

About a month ago my high school drama department had their performance of the musical Pippin. It was my first time doing a musical and over the course of the five months we worked on it I learned many things. Some lessons I learned were musicals are very different from plays, that singing in front of people can be an extremely nerve racking thing, you must be very specific when requesting a role because you might be misinterpreted, that some people are born singers and others are not, that lots of people are in the drama department for social reasons and not because they like to act and lastly that singing while jumping and dancing is very very difficult. I must admit I did not particularly enjoy doing the musical this year, not that I didn't have fun, because I did, but overall it was a very stressful, difficult, and sometimes tedious five months. Besides many of the people in drama were rather, to be very harsh, arrogant, judgmental and not welcoming. But I am making everything seem gloomy, I must fix that. There were many good times as well as bad. The show it self was proof of that. It was such a thrill to be inside the tent they put up, under the colored lights singing your heart out. I had a fairly small speaking part but I made the best of it by playing many little parts and having fun with my characters.
like we would actually be able to pull it off. See you mustOnce everyone had their costumes and make up I began to feel understand that the week before our play we were supposed to work in the tent but there were so many problems that that was not always possible. The costumes were not done until the day before the show, the lights weren't working, the heater wouldn't turn on, people were sick, and we ran out of time. I guess you could say our dress rehearsal was opening night.
Our four shows got better with each one. Friday night was good, Saturday matinee better and Saturday night amazing. Sunday matinee was great as well, but to be honest, Saturday night was the best. It had a wonderful cast and huge amounts of energy. Everyone seemed like they were having lots of fun.
I really loved the stage we had to perform on because you could sit backstage and watch your favorite parts while you waited to go on. I found there were some scenes that I would watch every show because I loved them so much. But my favorite part was being wheeled on stage in a chart of fake body parts as the character of the decapitated head. That scene was really fun and although it was quite short I enjoyed it very much. I especially loved doing a posh British accent.
Everyone did wonderfully, my friend My was phenomenal as the grandma Berthe. She gave her character a special flare and life. She has a wonderful voice as well which only made the scene even better. Ventana who played the queen, Fastrada, was also very good. She acted perfectly sweet and evil at the same time. I remember the first time she practiced her scene she had this catlike strut which became her trademark. I thought Tiffany who played one of the leading players was wonderful and Sean, who played Catherine, was lovely as well. I thought Dusty, who played Pippin, did a great job but I think it would have been better if he had taken the character a little farther.
In all everyone was wonderful and the show turned out extremely well. Part of me is sad that it's over and another part is happy because of how much work the whole project was.
Now you may wonder, was it really worth it? Was it worth all the hardships for four short shows? I'd say yes, even though it was extremely grueling, I was proud to be a part of it. We all worked as hard and I think it really showed. I know many people were pleasantly surprised when they came to see the show. Some even said it was better than the professional one playing at the Mark Taper. I think we all came together and made magic on that stage and it became apparent. I still can hardly believe we did it. I have many pleasant memories and I'm so happy I joined the musical and was apart of it all.
"We've got magic to do, just for you."