New Thing: IN CHARGE at the Talent Show

For the last few years, I've helped with our middle school talent show.  I agreed to do so again this year.  And then the lady who does everything got sick and was out for the rest of the week.  Guess who was promoted to captain of the ship?

That's right.  This girl.

I had a few things working in my favor.  The first was that I had helped for several years and I had a good idea of what needed to be done.  The second one was that I had GREAT people to work with, and they all knew what they were doing.  And lastly, when all this went down and I realized I was the one in charge, it happened to be the two days my students were in the computer lab typing their final assessments, so I had time to make lists, send emails, and print stuff, and then stay after school until 6 PM.  That was a God thing.

I feel like there are lots of things I could talk about.  I could talk about the kid who wasn't prepared for his audition, first rehearsal, or dress rehearsal, and then didn't actually perform the act as it appeared in the show until the show (I would like to note that I cut this kid 3 times and it was NOT my idea to let him stay in.)  I could talk about the poor girl who got up on stage, looked out at the audience, and froze like a popsicle, unable to summon the courage she needed until one of her teachers (not Lara and me, who were frozen on the front row, paralyzed with "what-the-heck-do-we-do-now?" fear) gently approached her with words of encouragement.  I could talk about the other poor girl, who started out the show to a song she wasn't prepared to sing (we got it figured out - the sound guy put in the wrong CD, but the poor thing! She was mortified).  Those would be the glitches.

But instead, I'm just going to try to learn what I can from the experience.  In the past, I feel like I have been a good encourager at the show - a person who builds kids up, gives them helpful pointers, and smiles my face off on the front row while they are performing.  This year, I feel like maybe I was a bad one.  I was completely stressed about all the things I was (newly) in charge of, and I think I forgot to try to make it fun for kids.  Instead, I was trying to keep things organized and moving quickly.  If I am ever in charge again, I feel like I need to find a better balance.  Because ultimately, when the lights go up (and the light guy did eventually master that...eventually), it's okay if they entered from the right instead of the left, or if they tripped over a mic cord (those stupid things), or if they forgot to move the mic stand.  It's really just about kids showing another side of themselves, be it the dancing side, the singing side, the piano/violin/viola-playing side, the juggling side, or the Gollum/Smeagol impersonation side - the side that we normally don't showcase at school.

Props to those kids.