Dear Diary,
Besides the basement, one of the hot spots is the theater's backstage. After the Story of My Life scene a handful of us huddle around two standing microphones to provide vocal support for the keystone-cops-hilarious guards onstage.
John Poling, the college professor fresh off his happy villager persona, occupies one with his tenor voice. I huddle around the other with Brian Clark, stuffed handsomely into a little pig costume, and Jay Hartzler the do-it-all producer/bishop/set builder/dwarf voice/etc. Brian and I often pass the time lip-synching and gesturing for the Farquaad vs Gingy confrontation occupying the stage. Ramsey joins us when he can.
After the Farquaad dungeon scene comes my personal favorite, the Duloc dancer scene. At this point the backstage mics are flooded with bodies in close quarters. Our small choir is reinforced with the likes of Rosie Hauck and Lauren Guttschow. There's also Ce Ce Hill from UHigh's theater, speech and choir who knocks out several solos during the show, and Kiley Bronke the basketball/soccer player from Normal West who helps me cram the back corner of the stage during the Freak Flag scene. Samm Bettis has been in three shows with me, and also rocks the Teen Fiona number.
Other members of the backstage singers are Jake Rathman and Heartland student/Sudoku & dancing whiz Kristen Woodard, who chime in during the second act's Farquaad ballad and wedding song. And probably someone I've left out, but is also awesome.
None of the fun is possible without the tireless ministrations of the orchestra led by JoLynn Robinson who successfully trained us (herded us?) through rehearsals the last couple of months and gives us timely cutoff signals from the overhead monitor on stage. Chase Brown and Andrew Johnson on keyboards are close enough for a wayward singer to bump into as they expertly shift the boards from one instrument to another. Cori and Tim Zehr have the distinction of being the only people to have been in all four of my shows (Cori and I sharing an instrument so to speak as I "play the flute" during the Morning Person scene), and brother David is along for the ride this time. Barry Fletcher and I go way back to our days in the contemporary band for Calvary United Methodist Church. Nick Benson, still rosy-cheeked from his little pig costume in his unique dual role, blares away on the trombone. With Abby Hammer keeping time on the drums, it's an unstoppable force of unsung heroes that keeps the energy high throughout.
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