I’ve written a lot about how it’s my son’s senior year of high school. There have been firsts – filling out his first college application to getting that first college acceptance. But the firsts will undoubtedly outshine the lasts. Like his last fall stage show. But at the same time, it came with firsts. It may have been his last show, and his last time on stage, but it was his first time running the sound up in the tech booth. Not just his first time, but he did the sound all by himself. I volunteered for various jobs at three of the four weekend shows and from what I could tell he never missed a cue.
The Halloween-themed show included three short acts, each its own scary tale.
He also spent his time painting and building sets as he has in the past, then running out on stage between scenes to move pieces around for a new look. But he graduated from the heavy lifting of backstage to the more cerebral lifting in the booth.
As I said, it was also his last time on stage. Since most of his responsibility was in the booth, he only had time for a short appearance in the third act. He’s a wonderful actor and has sharpened his skills all throughout high school, but as much as I wanted the on-stage experience for him, he prefers to stay out of the spotlight. His character for this show had no lines and only about ten total minutes of stage time but audience members agreed his character had the most impact.
Between intermission and the third act, only about ten minutes time, he had to run from the booth to the dressing room and change into costume. His spooky non-verbal character wore a maintenance man’s jumpsuit and silently pushed a broom back and forth across stage. He knew all and saw all, but never spoke. He hid out of sight and overheard other characters’ horrible plans to close the wax museum where he worked. If he were to say “boo!” at any time, his single word would have rocked the scene in every way possible.
It was a pretty good way to close out the last fall show of his high school career. Up next, his final spring show and final performance of his high school career. They have a very popular show on tap with many more sound cues and characters than this show. I’d love it if he stepped on stage again, but I understand that his love lies in the tech side of things and in the sound booth above. It’s where he fits.
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