Crazy Week

One dress rehearsal down, one to go...and then five performances in three days!

Tonight's rehearsal of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was as far from being reassuring as they usually are. With God's help, though--this is a Christian theater program, and His help is heavily depended upon--it always comes together by Friday night, and we just hope the two Thursday school day performances will go smoothly as well. Although backstage, sound and lighting still have a lot to iron out, tonight it was obvious that we have a talented cast and a great directing team. And the makeup sure looked good!--for the first night, that is. I took a few notes:

--more cheeks and lips on the Pevensies and all the non-Animal Good Narnians
--can't have too much eye liner
--give Tumnus and the other two fauns some faint lines around their eyes and rosier cheeks
--more glitter on the White Witch
--more purple on the Cruelies' cheeks; wickeder-looking eyebrows
--bring red lipstick and lip gloss for the White Witch
--the Beavers should tuck in their hoods into their collars
--the Chipmunk's white area needs to be outlined in black
--put big red circles on the Elves' cheeks
--Father Christmas needs rosier cheeks and let's redden the tip of his nose a bit--the Elves too
--all the Evil Narnians need more makeup! Can't see their age lines and wrinkles. (Use steel grey vs. light grey)
--try Subtle Brown vs. Creamy Peach on the Beavers tomorrow

Sound like fun? It is! The details drive me crazy, but at least now most of it is polishing. That's the part I like most, after everyone sorta knows what they're doing, and we just have to do it better each time.

Just for fun, I lifted these tidbits about the show out of a media communication (Papa Rooster's on the Marketing Committee, you see):

The musical version of this story is RARELY performed. It has been done only a few times in the Chicago area since its debut off-Broadway in the early 1980's.

This is no small community theater operation. Our kids use real body mics, professionally painted backdrops, expensive technical devices (like a snow machine, in our case), and perform for audiences of 600 people at a time.

Now that I've made all you out-of-staters sorry you can't come, I'll thank anyone reading this who bought tickets! We sold enough tickets to get almost $150 off our class fees next time around (as well as a hoodie for me and sweatpants for Blondechick), so we're very, very grateful for your patronage. We also just can't wait for you to see it!

For the rest of you, pictures to come.