Show's Over...

Last year, I wrote a Christmas play. It was a completely unexpected opportunity and one that I am still a little in awe of, honestly, since I would never have imagined that I'd be writing anything fictional. But this year I had the opportunity to not only see it done but to direct our church's performance of it. I'm pretty much the worst at telling other adults what to do but I decided to take it on anyway. I chose the best possible cast and (what feels like forever ago) we began rehearsals.

It's kind of surreal to see a script I wrote performed, but it's kind of maddening to actually direct it and read the script constantly (we're our own worst critics, right?). And then lots of super fun things happened, like finding out that our entire set had to be repainted, or being down to the wire on some of our main props, or coordinating rehearsals with our already-crazy schedules.

Our wonderful cast! 

While I certainly spent a lot of time on this, there is really no way in the world I could have done it by myself. I had (very talented) friends helping with set design, makeup, and, let's be honest... the actors themselves made the show. I am NOT an actress, so working with people (including my husband!) who are able to actually get onstage without being super awkward (like me) is super impressive. And I won't say that there weren't days I was absolutely at a loss and feeling like a kid playing adult in all this, times I wanted to toss my script in the trash, and times I ugly-cried at the thought of never being able to pull it all off.

So when the second performances finally ended last night, I was really and truly overwhelmed by the goodness of God in this whole process (and you might have heard my sigh of relief wherever you are.) I've heard a lot of nice words about it, but the truth is (and this is not false humility by any means), this was all the Lord's doing. I'd never written a script before. I'd never directed anything of this magnitude before. And, I certainly don't have the ability to move in people's hearts... only the biblical truth of the Christmas story could do that. 

Now that it's all over, I feel a little lost and "thing-less" but I am more than willing to wait that feeling out while a) hibernating sleeping in for a few days and b) cleaning my sad, neglected house. But I do want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, the cast, crew, choir, choir director, sound and light guys, and everyone else who had a hand in making this a success. 

AND not to be forgotten... I absolutely could not have done any of this without my husband. Jonathan has helped me in a million ways, from doing a great job in his role to keeping me from (completely) losing my mind. He's the greatest, I know.

And now I'm off to... did I say clean? I meant watch White Christmas and eat Hershey Kisses. =) 


Ash