The English Show

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love musicals and live theatre. If I had my dream life, I would spend it behind the scenes and in the audience of Broadway musicals. In the past, the closest I got was being involved with the annual LP Christmas Production and The Festival of Talent, and attending as much theatre as I could in LA and New York. That of course, was until I decided to move to Colombia. Well, I must have a really nice guardian angel because one of the first duties I was charged with at La Enseñanza was to help with the English Show.

School resumed July 13 and the English Show was July 30. The title of the show was The Musical. At first I was worried about the lack of time, but there was a really good script written by two 10th (11th in the US) graders, and all of the actors were given their lines to memorize before semester break. Since I neither had to write a script nor choreograph any dances, I was more than excited to help. (Not that I didn’t love writing (or revising) the scripts for the Christmas play and choreographing with Gina.) Beginning the 15th, we held practice Monday-Thursday after school until 4:30ish. I was the only teacher to attend all of the rehearsals. I think some of the teachers thought I did it to look good to Ana Elisa or because I had nothing else to do. Although the latter is somewhat true, I attended rehearsal every day because I loved it. It was so fun to hear the girls speak English and improve their pronunciation a little every day. I actually got to act as the diction coach. The only word I was not completely successful with was cheated. Who knew that would be the most difficult English word in the play? We spent quite a bit of time practicing that word since several of the actors had it in their lines. It would not have been such a big deal, but it often sounded like the girls were saying the ch like an sh and the ea like a short i. Put those together with a ted at the end and listen to what happens. See why I was worried? Rehearsal was quite an interesting process because the actors were never all there until the week of the show. One of the girls was even out of the country until last week. Another girl was in a tennis tournament the first several days of rehearsal. A third girl was out for four days with a liver infection. On Monday of last week, I wasn’t sure there would actually be a show. On Wednesday, there were still scripts in hand during rehearsal and we hadn’t gotten through the entire play yet. The following pictures are evidence not only of a show, but of a terrific show. It was awesome! The girls all did a fabulous job. I was so proud, and there was only one girl who pronounced cheated wrong.

As with all productions, there were a couple small hiccups. For some reason, the microphones that had worked perfectly all week didn’t always want to work. The girls, however, did a great job seamlessly transitioning to another mic that worked. Secondly, in one of the ninth grade dances one of the girls had a Cindy Brady moment. All week whenever the ninth graders rehearsed Crazy in Love, it was perfect. The choreography is great and the girls danced it so well. Friday, however, halfway through the dance, the girl who dances front-and-center completely forgot the dance. The girls behind her tried to keep going, but she just stood there so they tried to play it off. It was soooooo sad. Fortunately, next Tuesday night the girls will put on the show again. Friday, the show was only for the students and teachers, but the next show is for family and friends. Last night I told Juana Maria, Ana Rosa, and Auxilia that they need to come to the show. I tried to explain that I would reserve them seats in the front row if they come. I am hoping they come because I can’t think of a better motivator to do well than three white-habited nuns sitting in the front row.