Opened and Closed!

This past weekend the “ONU Holiday Spectacular” toured to the Lima Civic Center for our second weekend of shows. We had our first weekend at the Freed Center before Thanksgiving break and got a nice week off before going back into tech for the Lima shows. This show is put on every year in Ada and Lima so luckily it is a well-oiled machine. However with live theatre there is always something bound to go wrong.

As I mentioned in my previous blogs I was a swing for this show. That means I learned all the female ensemble tracks and was ready to go on for any of them if they were unable to perform. Unfortunately one of the senior girls got very sick during our last dress rehearsal. I got a text at noon on opening night telling me that I had to perform the majority of her track at that night's show. This was very nerve-wracking because her track had a lot of extra things in it including jumping rope while tap dancing, rollerblading and a small group number. Additionally when somebody with such a large track is out of the show multiple people have to learn new things to cover all the bases. For that night we had all three female swings on as well as a few featured dancers doing extra numbers. It was certainly a crazy way to re-open this show. 

Luckily that senior felt better the next day and was able to do both the shows on Saturday. I was so happy that my parents had coincidentally been there on Friday and were able to see me perform. Saturday went smoothly as normal until it was time to get on the bus to go home. The director pulled me and a few others aside and told us to prepare to do the altered show because it was likely that the senior could not perform the next day. Sure enough we got a text Sunday morning telling us that we were on. 

The Sunday show went great and we were sadly done with this year's show. It was such an amazing feeling to be able to both open and close the Lima shows. I learned so much from this experience and I feel like I grew a lot as a performer. I am incredibly grateful to have had this opportunity and I hope to be a part of this amazing show next year as well. Happy Holiday!



Comments

  1. Marissa MyersDecember 11, 2024 at 3:25 PM

    I unfortunately was not able to get the Holiday Spectacular this year, but I'm glad it went well! Although it's always disappointing when someone with such a big role gets sick, I'm glad you were able to perform, especially when your parents were there!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zach-BowersDecember 12, 2024 at 10:18 AM

    It's unfortunate to hear that she got sick for the Friday performance, but it seemed like the perfect opportunity to showcase your talent and skills! I'm glad it all ended well and that she was able to feel good for the Saturday and Sunday performances though!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ella FooseDecember 12, 2024 at 10:35 AM

    It really sucks that one of our performers got sick, but you and all the other swings really pulled through! You did so great, especially with such short notice! It was so fun to watch you step into a new role. You killed it!

    ReplyDelete

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