Perseverance Pays Off
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I will never forget Saturday, August 27th 2005, the day my dream of more than two years became a reality.
In the summer of 2003, mom gave me the idea of doing the musical entitled Esther-Ordinary Faith with our home church. I was hesitant at first, but as I listened to the musical more and more on CD, I started really wanting to produce it! At that time, we were only meeting with the Hart family, and the characters for the musical seemed perfect just from our two families. I gave a CD and book to the Harts, and as they began to listen to it more and more, they became excited about doing it as well.
After we attended the first annual Frontier Days with many other home school families, our home church grew from 2 families to 5 families! Because I had already found all the characters for the musical, and didn't want anyone to feel left out, the Harts and us decided to just practice the musical by ourselves, when the other families happened not to be around. Needless to say, we didn't get much practice in, and the musical just kinda got forgotten.
I continued to listen to the CD however, and after hearing it many times over, I realized that I knew the whole musical by heart, word-perfect! The enthusiasm built up in me again, and I talked to daddy about it. We decided to this time incorporate the whole home church into the musical as singers, and try to set aside a time every Sunday to practice it. Not everyone was as enthusiastic however, and once again the musical got forgotten... by all but me.
In July of 2004 I attended the drama camp at Pensacola Christian College. There I learned all about directing, acting, poetry interpretation, speaking better, costuming, and make-up. I once again got excited about doing Esther-Ordinary Faith, but the time just never seemed to be right once I got home.
As the summer of 2005 began, I determined that if the musical was ever going to be done, I would have to do it. After talking with mom, I set dates for practicing and the performance, and handed out fliers to the now seven familes in the church, inviting people to be in the musical. We weren't planning to practice until July, after I got back from the Heroes of Today camp. So, in the meantime, I began to choreograph some of the moves to the songs, following what I saw in my head as I listened to the music. I was very timid about being the one to direct the musical. "I 'm only almost 15," I argued to myself, "too young for people to listen to me!" But, since there was no one else to fill that job, God helped me build up the courage to be the director.
For the first practice we met at our house and started practicing outside on our basketball court where we thought the performance would be held. The Alabama summer soon drove us indoors, so we moved into the living room where the air conditioning was! All we did that day was to read through the script and give everyone a feel of how things were going to be. I also did the moves to all the songs, showing a little of what things were going to look like. Some people, such as Miriam Hart, who played the part of Susan, knew their part by heart already, but others, such as Nick Cassidy, our Haman, had never heard the play in his life!
Because of the heat, and the low quality of a stage on a basketball court, the Harts decided to see if we could use the stage at the public library in Tallassee. After going through the library board, we were allowed to use the stage as long as we practiced "after hours"! This was an amazing answer to prayer, since the library stage had plenty of room, and working stage lights! The Harts, especially Joel, put in a lot of work to get the lights working and the stage painted in just one month.
So, we continued to practice the musical, and slowly everyone learned his or her part. To help everyone along since we could only practice once a week, I put together a video of moves for people to use as they practiced at home. We had to simplify some things, change others, and delete things altogether, but the practices went very well. Some days were hard, especially the day I tried to run the sound, direct, and play the part of Esther! Elijah graciously ran the sound for me, and things began to go smoother. I got discouraged some days, when things just didn't seem to work, but the parents helped me a lot! Mr. Rob Pace gave me a lot of pointers, and Mr. Tony Olm did more than his share running the lights, and constructing a lot of the props. I couldn't have done it without the parents' help! All of the actors and actresses worked very hard as well, putting up with all my amateur mistakes!
Some things were very unexpected, such as a few singers breaking out in chicken pox, but God worked everything out. We found costumes for everyone, constructed the stage, and were soon ready for the big day!
Things went so well that night of August 27th ! I moved as in a daze, realizing all the dreams and hard work of years past had finally paid off! Everyone did so well, remembering their lines, the moves to the songs, and where to go when!
When it was all over, Miriam Hart surprised me with a bouquet of two dozen roses! They were beautiful! I was so thankful that God had helped me persevere that far... to see my dream come true.
Hope you enjoyed reading about the musical! You can see pictures from it at Photo Palace.