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May. 23, 2009
The End of an Era
... a very brief era. :)
Being about the 9th Final Presentation I’ve written about but (as I have previously written), one for a session that contained a lot of “news.”
There was much – but little – discussion among the SALTeam as to how to end out this session well. Meaning that we knew there needed to be a lot of discussion about it since it was rapidly coming up on us, but that we didn’t discuss it as much as we should have. I think most of us just thought of it in passing, kind of like, “Oh, that is going to happen sometime soon, isn’t it?” We were occupied with Leadership Camp – and the fallout that ensued – until RIGHT before the Final Presentation.
So when we all realized, about three days before the Final Presentation, that the Final Presentation was coming up, we finally commenced worrying about it. Or at least, I did. Last session there had been much ado but it had been a little boring with a million certificates and so much ceremony. We wanted to give the team something to remember the session by but not something so ceremonious that it wouldn’t mean anything to them. Also complicating our decision was the email that Tess sent out two days prior to the Final Presentation:
“God’s given us a neat opportunity and Jory’s worked hard to set this up so that our final presentation can be more of an outreach to the community and benefit to the Salvation Army. Please send this on to friends and family to invite them this Thursday, to God and Country Theater, to spend an inspiring evening with “the Mimes”. ”
Don’t get me wrong; this wasn’t a BAD thing. It just meant that any presenting of anything would have to be done at the church beforehand, since we were formatting the evening as an outreach, at a theatre. The following schedule that Tess gave us for that Thursday will give you an idea of how much time we would have for said presenting:
1:00 – Bible Study
2:15 – Discipleship
2:45 – Rehearsal (see song list below)
4:30 – eat supper (make sure you bring yours!) End of session thank yous, wrap up, announcements, etc… (we’re multi-tasking )
4:45 – put make-up on and get mime clothes on!
5:00 – clean church
5:15 – go to God and Country
5:20 – run through staging, set props, etc. at theater
6:00 – Program begins
7:15 – program ends – clean up
Especially note the interval from 4:30-4:45. Yes, Tess expected us to eat dinner, explain all the details for the evening, do prayer requests, and any further presentations in 15 MINUTES! Now, I’m all for being optimistic, but this was slightly amusing to me.
Last summer (2008), when there were still only eight of us on the team, we bought ribbons for all the girls, and whenever I see Madison wear them I think of that session (with Simone… *tear*). Therefore, and since there are a million girls on the team this session, I thought it would be cool if we gave ribbons to all the girls. I talked with Courtney and Melissa about it (decided this would be an “official SALTeam” secret) and they thought it would be a cool idea but could give me no direction on what colors to go for. I figured navy and yellow would be safe but rather boring. I ended up getting those colors plus pink (hey, some girls like it) and this nice green-and-white polka dotted ribbon. Cut them and burned the ends on Wednesday afternoon. Gave them out during those crammed fifteen minutes and all the girls were very pleased.
We had quite the heated debate during our last SALTeam study about God’s will. Josiah and I were at odds with everyone else – as is often the case in theological issues with AIM – and we talked about it in depth for at least half an hour (half of our precious meeting). It was awkward because I was arguing with Tess, which I HATE doing, but I was proud that Jo and I stood up for what we believed.
That day only, we did mentorship first, so we could put some limits on it and get done ON TIME. We started Bible study a bit late and finished a bit late, but it was -really good! Every girl had found something specific to work on; every girl had something she learned during the study. As a leader, it’s really encouraging to know that the girls are actually taking something home from this Bible study… because in the past, that’s been a rare occurrence. I’m working on worship and service. Those two really hit home; worship during my prayer time and service during Leadership Camp.
Practice was a whirlwind of activity. Those songs that we’d practiced recently – or a lot – we didn’t review but once (like Go, Stand, America Again, Faithful, etc.). We obviously had to set up God Bless. I was surprised. I thought the Duncans would be in the song but they sat out with those who didn’t know the song. I’d done up the staging beforehand (‘cause I think that kind of stuff is FUN!), and it worked out OK, even though we couldn’t figure out if Heather knew the wife part. We ran it once, sort of – the reason being that it was the Browns, the Lillys, Heather, Jo and I, and we figured we could pull off God Bless without much practice.
We also had to review Champion because it was a little rough, but overall I think we were pretty well prepared, song-wise, for the presentation. Of course, I was uneasy with the entire props-scheme of things, and rightfully so, but it didn’t matter; we didn’t have time to fix it anyway.
We ate really fast – well, I ate on the way to the theatre, with FOUR GUYS in my car – and put on makeup fairly fast and ran out to our vehicles, leaving the church and its bathrooms in various states of disrepair. (That means we didn’t have time to properly clean up) No matter, the Browns will be back to the church after the presentation to clean up. Poor them. They always have to do all the grunt work.
Well, when we got there, we took one look at the promised “big theatre stage” and gulped. It wasn’t big. Now, it wasn’t that small either. It was actually just a normal sized stage, and one apparently with no offstage to speak of (hey, it used to be a movie theatre). Hmmm.
Turns out that there was a little tiny bit of offstage, but it was crowded (especially on stage left) with random stuff and completely black. One could not see ANYthing back there. Emily B and I hurried to set the props and tried to communicate to the team where they were, but then we ran Go and the vest transition for America Again, which was needed but really messed up the props situation. I needed to straighten them up but people were starting to arrive so we all had to get set – most of the crowd offstage to come in for Go, and the rest of us split to our respective sides. Rachel needed a drink; I needed a bathroom break. Worried that the presentation would be starting any minute, I waited ten minutes (don’t ask me why), but then the both of us ran offstage (officially, of course) and had the fastest bathroom break this side of the Mississippi before rushing back onstage. As soon as we got onstage the music commenced.
The lineup was thusly:
Go, Stand, Virtuoso, 2 Sets, America Again, God Bless, Champion, Faithful, Love Story.
Similar to our lineup for YCW, except with 2 Sets, God Bless, and Champion added. I’ve discovered that 2 Sets is a marvelous transition song. Jo and I did the Rothchild and Evelyn parts because Madison and Jarek … well, I don’t remember why we did it instead of them. Oh yeah! ‘Cause Josh was gone, Jarek played Rueben and Jo and I played the bad couple because brother and sister are always better and Ryan was too tall.
The frustration for me this presentation was that because the props were scattered willy-nilly AND because I’m a girl and can think of a million things at the same time, I did most of the presentation on auto-pilot while worrying and wondering if peoples’ props would be where they needed to be when they needed to be there. Emily doesn’t seem to have this problem. I must ask her how she manages it.
The main thing that was funny to me but probably not to an audience was America Again. Other than that and Moriah’s nice stage-crossing escapade in Love Story, the entire presentation went off rather smoothly. No one hit the large latter leaning against the wall behind the curtain at the rear of the stage. No one fell over on the rather dusty and slightly slippery stage. No one forgot the lineup – or at least no one made it obvious that they forgot the lineup – and every guard had blood in Faithful. Oh yeah, and Emily’s blood almost went off the stage again in Faithful. But all in all, despite my lack of emotional involvement, it was a very nice presentation. (Hoping for pictures tomorrow)
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I'll be remembering / The dark night; the hard fight; the long climb up a hill knowing the cost / The brave death, the last breath, the silence whispering all hope is lost / The thunder, the wonder... the power that brings the dead back to life!
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May. 26, 2009 - Untitled Comment