Duets Concert

That was just insane. There is no reason we should not have just crashed and burned last night. We must have some major Karmic payback coming to us, because there is no explainable reason as to how we got through that concert. A) We had never run through the show, B) we hadn’t even rehearsed with some of our duet partners and C) we didn’t even know the running order or exactly who was accompanying each person until right before each song. Not to mention finishing up a four hour Butterfly rehearsal directly before the concert.

I really can’t explain it. The lyrics for each song magically burst forth from my mouth. The first full performance (blocking and singing with the accompaniment) of three of the four scenes I had been assigned, occurred on stage during the actual concert. I’ve really never been so unprepared ever and based on the crowd reaction, rehearsal is highly overrated. Not that it was a perfect show by any stretch of the imagination, but the audience seemed to forgive the somewhat long pauses between numbers as we frantically set up for each scene or tried to decide who was accompanying which songs. I audibly whispered, “Am I playing this?” to Val as she was standing on stage ready to sing. The audience, of course, thought it was all part of “the script” and laughed at each seemingly ridiculously moment, thinking it must have been staged for their entertainment. Little did they know…

Another “it-had-to-have-been-staged” moment occurred when I forgot that I was accompanying the song directly after mine. I was busy patting myself on the back for being so brilliant in the “When We Grow Up” baby scene when I heard the intro to “Two’s Company.” I thought, “Um, I’m supposed to be playing that song.” I ducked out the side door, ran around the back of the theater (I couldn’t cut straight across the front because of the lighting and seating arrangement), reached over Val’s shoulders (who started playing because I was nowhere in sight) and took over while she slid off the bench and I stepped over it to sit down. Later, Trish told us she thought something was different about the song but wasn’t quite sure what.

A stressful evening for the Pineda’s, but apparently parents will overlook anything if their kids are front and center; definitely, a good thing to remember for future fundraisers.