Night of Stars

Last Friday night was talent night at the schools. Nate and I were able to hold auditions, organize the events, prepare the students, and basically keep the show moving smoothly as the tech (me) and stage (Nate) crew. It was especially fun to see how excited the students were about performing. The four brass players wore their lips out like crazy by practicing non-stop. Everyday after school they wanted to meet with Mr. Becker to practice their quartet. We were so proud of them when they finally took their bows during the "Night of Stars."

The craziest glitch of the show was when this Korean elementary student went up to sing his "Silent Night" solo. The place was silent as he stood with the microphone in his hand. He stared at Mr. Becker and started pointing to the keyboard. Mr. Becker thought he wanted a starting note, since he had told us in auditions that he didn't have accompaniment planned. The audience waited nervously as Mr. Becker climbed the steps to the keyboard and gave the silent student his starting pitch. Still, no singing. The student motioned to Mr. Becker to accompany him, so the surprised music teacher sat slowly on the bench. Suddenly an impromptu introduction began and the crowd amazingly released their breath as the awaited act began. Nate received so many compliments afterwards for his impromptu performance.

Other than that, the most complimented act was the number we performed called "Staff in Step." Nine of us staff members, including the principal, tried to imitate "Stomp" on stage but using teaching materials. (I don't have a photo of this because we were all involved). It started with the broom, then the librarian shut books hard on 2 and 4, then a ruler was struck, then the squeaky white-board markers checked the board, and by the end I was dancing in my tap shoes and Nate was beating his body with a clipboard. The crowd went wild and loved seeing their teachers up there being crazy. I told them, "That is what we do during staff meetings each week!" What a fun night of enjoying music and entertainment with our students.