I'm not afraid to fall; it means I've climbed up high.

When I had first found out I was playing Toto, I laughed. Hard. Honestly, I didn't believe it. When I checked the cast list for myself, there it was. I was skeptical about it at first, to say the least. What would my costume be? Was I going to have to sit in a basket or on a bike? And, most importantly, would I have lines?

 

Crunch week, the practice hell before all opening nights, always makes me stop and think for a minute. Why do I put myself through so much misery with these plays? This is the first time that I've had an actual named character in a school play...and that named character was a dog. And not like Snoopy in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, an actual dog! Every night, someone was driving me crazy and I swore I would never do another ND show for as long as I lived.

 

But there are so many fun things that have happened through our sore feet and corny lines. I couldn't be with my friends because I had to be on stage all the time. In the past few days, I've actually really enjoyed hanging around Jesse, whom I had loathed for so many years. All of us just had so many great times--more good than the bad, I hope.

 

So after a miserable practice, I finally asked myself why I was putting myself through all this torture. But, as it always happens to be, the actual production was the answer.

 

I was both excited and nervous, as I usually am, before the show. I was actually surprised how much the audience liked it and how much they responded. That might be because I'm much more used to doing shows for little kids who don't always get the jokes. But they laughed and applauded and it just felt really great.

 

After our crazy dance at the closing, we all ran down the aisles of the auditorium clapping and cheering and skipping. Once we got out in the hallway we all were screaming and hugging each other like there was no tomorrow. After the show there was a reception in the gym and everyone was still hugging and cheering. I honestly can't blame them--there were definetly times when it seemed like this show was never going to come together. It got really hot as we all took pictures, drank punch ate cookies and such. Then the entire cast all got changed and then, like the cool people in RENT, we all went to take over a

restaurant.

 

Friendly's was already packed when me, Perry, Liz, Maggie and Tristan got there. Everyone in the cast and crew clapped and cheered for all of us when we entered and we managed to cram six people into a booth. But after Tristan's "manwich" line, Adam got a little freaked out and sat somewhere else! Then we wrote "manwich" on a napkin and started tossing it around and even making it into a paper airplane!

 

At one point I just stood up and said, "Congratulations cast and crew of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, we've succesfully taken over half a restaurant!"

It was here Perry added, "And succesfully annoyed the other half!"

 

Maggie and I eventually started singing "La Vie Boheme" from RENT because we really did take over a restaurant and it was AWESOME!

 

And when Caleb, basically the star of the show (he had more lines than any two people put together!) came in, Stephan jumped up and shouted "Ding Dong!" And we all did our chant about how the witch is dead--which old witch? The wicked witch! Ding dong the wicked witch is dead! It was just a fabulous night and it sucked to be going home. ('Specially cuz Tristan was driving Maggie and me home and got lost.)

 

Well, tonight was the closing night. I didn't even notice how fast these past six weeks had gone. Before the show, we all were sitting in a circle in the gym for no apparent reason and somehow it got turned into a therapy circle. We all had AIDS, someone was a child rapist, Maggie was insane, I was a schiz who had been abused as a child, Caitlin was an addict to Chuck Norris jokes....it was great. Then me and Caitlin K. got into this really goofy fight (twice, actually) and we just had so much fun.

 

The audience tonight was great too. They laughed and clapped and said "aww". Well, actually, Warren said "aww" on stage. I had to try so hard not to burst out laughing!

 

After the show we had another reception and there were so many people who wanted pictures and even autographs! I love kids so I had to sign everyone of their programs ^_^ Woof!

 

After everyone left, we all got changed, attempted to get all our makeup off (I felt bad for Jane, who was the Wicked Witch of the West), clean up the dressing rooms and strike the set. (Btw, this play marks the first time that I have been able to change in the *real* dressing room.) Oh yes, we had many numerous adventures (and cuts and bruises) striking the set, but eventually it was all done and time for the cast party!!

 

Honestly, I live for these things. We all pounced on the food like a pack of great wolves, turned off the lights, turned on the music and strobe light and danced as if something had possessed us. We played with the lights a lot and ran around and danced like heathens. Perry was always holding Liz close and dancing with her all the time. Just a few months ago that would have really bothered me, but now I felt it was fine. It was a little strange, to see one of my best friends with my ex-boyfriend, but it was all right. We're still friends, but we've let each other go and it's all right.

 

After a bit we were all called down by Mrs. Galvin for the "Tony Baloney" Awards as we call them. For winning this award four years in a row, and because he's a senior, The Most Likely to Drive Mrs. Galvin Crazy was renamed the Caleb Norton Memorial. LOL! Then Jesse gave a speech that made us all go "awww" and she probably would've cried if not for us interrupting her at the end of every paragraph and making everyone laugh.

 

As cast party tradition states, we all got out a limbo stick and started doing the limbo. Sometime during the limbo the crew called out to us that they had a surprise--cookie cake! The held the box up on the platform and revealed not cookie cake at all but a message reading, "Sorry Suckers!!!"

 

By midnight, like Cinderella, we were all forced to leave and go home, me, Liz, and Perry immdeatly started chanting "Hell no, we won't go!" For whatever reason, we all started chasing Caleb around in the gym with no lights in it, through the darkened locker rooms and hallway and back out again.

 

Well, Perry *finally* gave Liz a good night kiss. (How come it took 3 months when he was dating me, though? Was it the "holy crap!" incident?) And I was so happy for the both of them. ("Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match....")

 

Looking back at all this, I'm a completely different person from when I first entered high school. Everything always changes. The only thing that really remains contsant is the fact that everything changes. Kinda paradoxical, don't ya think?

 

WOOF!!