My Real Life

Ted is the man who works tirelessly to create the Playbill for our Spring Musical every year.

He takes hundreds and hundreds of photos during our rehearsals, and then, after the Saturday night show, at the cast party, he puts them all out for the students to take.

Thankfully, he takes out all of the pictures of the directors BEFORE putting them out for the kids.

Otherwise, we believe there would be dartboards with our faces on them all over town.

Directing the play can be…intense.

Anyway, as I looked through the photos of myself, on Saturday night, I was able to do a little self-reflection.

I love being the musical director of the play.

I honestly do.

I enjoy watching it all come together, and am always moved to tears, the night of the show, as I sit in the pit, with the band, and mouth the words to every song, just in case someone forgets or needs a cue for a musical entrance.

Yet, to look at these pictures, it’s hard to imagine that the kids hug me after the show.

Actually, looking at these pictures, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would ever want to hug me.

Here I am, probably singing the song the way I want it to be sung.

Apparently, the way I want it to be sung is “seriously.”

Here’s another one.

Apparently, I am teaching “the crane” move. (Yes, someone actually did the crane, from the Karate Kid, in the play)

However, it’s the “serious crane.”

I have mentioned before how much I enjoy playing the piano.

Can’t you tell?

And here…teaching a song.

My guess is I was teaching “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”

Or not.

Finally, there’s this:

Playing and singing together.

Yikes!

So, here’s the self-reflection:

The kids know I’m enjoying myself when I jump around like a loon, in an effort to get them to loosen up.

However, I think more of my time is spent in these activities, and I’m concerned that this is what I look like most of the time.

I look at the pictures and know that I’m concentrating.

I worry that the kids might see these faces and think that I’m angry or not enjoying myself.

So, next year, I’ll need to make an effort to pay closer attention to my expression.

The kids should know how much I love working on the play, and how much I enjoy them.

My second piece of self-reflection is that if Ted took these photos on different days, I wear this outfit waaaaay too often.