The Final Curtain Call

I woke up yesterday to the sound of absolute silence. No rushing around trying to get ready. No cat trying to gnaw off my toes. No stress. At least not yet. I rolled out of bed and pushed open my blinds and laid back in bed under the rays of the sun. I'm not quite sure how long I stayed there. An hour or so, just relaxing, knowing that the last performance was coming close and the mayhem of a drama schedule was coming to an end.

The serenity of a relaxing Saturday morning came to an abrupt end when a massive storm surged through Sentul and caused a city-wide power outage. The rain slapped against the window harder than a handful of rocks. I had just finished getting ready when I had to face the wicked weather. So much for looking nice.

I rode to school through large puddles of water (nothing compared to Jakarta flooding) with rain pelting against my body. It was very painful. By the time I parked my bike, I had bruises on my hands.

The power outage also affected the gym. It was pitch black and quite scary. I was admittedly very jumpy and waiting for someone to come behind me and attack. I always seem to play that "worse case scenario" game in my mind when something like that happens.

After using flashlights to get things organized and eating dinner, we were graced with the lights once again. Still behind in the schedule, but not terribly. All the actors were able to get dressed, painted with makeup, and went through sound checks by 6:30. We pushed back the showtime about a half hour so we could to some last minute things.

The performance went amazing. So much better than Friday's. There was a lot less running around, however, there still seemed to be some confusion. We accidentally flipped ahead a few scenes and had a character in the middle of a costume change when she was supposed to be on stage. However, with four people getting her undressed and redressed, we fixed the mishap in minimal timing.

When the curtains closed and opened one last time for the actors, crew, and directors to take a final bow, I felt overwhelmed with pride for these kids. They put on a great performance. Even despite the stress it brought - it definitely was rewarding.

After countless thank yous, flashes from cameras, and hugs from people both known and unknown, I walked out of the gym. Nothing but photos and a basket of memories left to look back on this experience.

The Cast, Crew, and Directors of "A Little Princess"