Played Out

It's today now.

So, we did the play.
Incredibly.
Seven weeks. Everyone memorized what they needed to memorize (I myself could recite the play for you, if you'd like, inflecting every student's inflection), painted what they had to paint, and did what they had to do.
The lighting guy did our lights, even though he didn't come to any practices and decided two weeks from showtime that he was going to go to a hockey tournament instead.
He changed his mind of his own accord. I told him to do what he wanted.
He won best lighting at the awards ceremony on Saturday afternoon.
That wasn't all, either.
We actually did pretty well.
Max won best lighting, which I went up to receive after coming back from the bathroom, having no idea what I was receiving.
"We won something? What did we win?"
When I found out, I made him come up onstage. I'd been calling him my 'man on the lights' from the moment he said he wanted to do the lighting.
Lauren won best supporting actress (junior), which she didn't expect because she covered her mouth the way girls do when they win something they weren't expecting.
Sebastian was nominated for best supporting for playing the main character's dad and that was awesome because he only had about five lines or so.
Cameron was nominated for best actor.
We were nominated for best junior play, which was pretty sweet, and even yours truly managed to go home with 'best original script', which I told myself I didn't care about winning, even though I did.
Here's a picture from the after-party:

Sarah also won something (post-humus!), an award that recognizes teachers/volunteers who contribute to drama on the whole.
I nominated her, telling everyone that she was a 'shoe-in' because she's dead (relax, she would have laughed at that), which proved to be true.
I left the theater and looked at my shitty little award in the passenger seat, welling up a bit.
Despite my best efforts, I actually managed to do something I said I was going to do.
I affected people.

I elicited change. I honored my friend.
And I left it all way too late, which she also probably would have done.
Someone asked me what's next after this project.
I have no idea, but perhaps I'll say that I'll do something else and then actually do it.
Who knows?
In the meantime, we'll perform the play again for the parents next month some time.
I'm looking forward to it.
All this effort, it's about time I get the opportunity to flirt with some moms...