Of Persia and Princesses

Okay, okay, so I know I went over six days, sorry, sorry, GOSH. I was pretty busy this week. From here on out, it’ll probably get more regular, though, as I begin doing DTs.

Okay. So I left off after Esther orientation, I believe. Firstly, I want to say that I did Esther for three main reasons: 1) I knew that if I wasn’t in it I probably wouldn’t see Jason for a long time, 2) I knew that if I wasn’t in it I probably wouldn’t see Maria for a long time, 3) I knew that if I wasn’t in it Sarah would kill me. So I was happy that I got to be in it because I would be in another show with those three people.

Well, much to my EXTREME HAPPINESS, both Jason and Maria dropped. So now the only remaining reason of the original three that I was in the show is Sarah.

All of this is said to set up a story. Because of both Jason and Maria dropping, I was seriously contemplating dropping myself and risking my death at Sarah’s hand. I’ve wanted to be in Esther for four and a half years (because it’s such a freaking cool show), but it totally ruins the experience for me if I don’t have many friends in it. So I thought, “well, I had the opportunity to be in it, but most of my close friends aren’t in it, and some of my close-ish friends that I was doing the show for dropped, so maybe I’ll just drop myself and audition next time they do Esther.”

And probably, that’s what I would’ve done. Had it not been for the sheer genius of a great man named Dustin.

Dustin is the choreographer and the assistant director, and he’s pretty much without a doubt (for me, anyway) the best choreographer that Lifehouse can possibly hope to get.

So on Monday we had a choreography rehearsal, and we were choreographing the Finale. At this point, I was considering dropping, but I didn’t know for sure if Jason had dropped, so it wasn’t a major issue. So this rehearsal was somewhat fun, and rather tiring. There’s really not much to tell. If you want to see how it looks, come see the show.

Then Tuesday night we had a vocal rehearsal, which are always boring. For the first time in my memory, I’m not singing harmony in this show. It rocks. Because I really have no idea how the songs go. So singing harmony would be rather difficult, since I don’t even know the melody.

Anyway, it was at this rehearsal that I discovered that Jason wasn’t doing it, and so it was Tuesday night into Wednesday that I really began considering dropping. And now I must put this story on hold to tell you of what happened on Wednesday before rehearsal, so mark this story well so that you don’t forget it.

Okay. On Wednesday I had my first debate club meeting. It was informational, not a whole lot happened . . . I think it’s going to be fun, though. Although I’m not sure how many tournaments and stuff I’ll get to do . . . Lifehouse might get in the way, and Lifehouse is a higher priority for me.

So anyway, we had the meeting, and I saw some of my friends from the debate camp I did over the summer. I actually think the chances are rather high that I’ll end up partnering with one of them . . . we’ll have to see. Anyway, it was interesting to see the people who were counselors at the camp as just regular students . . . but some of them are really cool, and I hope to become friends with them . . . and gosh that was kind of an out-of-place sentence there, wasn’t it?

Anyway, after this I got home just in time to eat and go to rehearsal. At this point I was really really really considering dropping, and thought that there was a chance that this was my last rehearsal. (End Cormack Reading — Day 1, if you like cliffhangers)

This rehearsal was for the “13th of Adar” people, aka Haman’s henchmen. Of which I, of course, was one. So I got there, and there was Matt, and Zack, and Jeremy, and Nathan, and Ben standing around outside. Matt asked me what I was doing there. He asked it in a kind of joking way, so as not to offend me, but I think he was actually wondering. ‘Cause since I got in the show after auditions, no one (other than Dustin and [thankfully] me) knew who I was. So that question kind of strengthened my thought of, “I really should drop.” I felt like I was just kind of in the way.

Then we went inside and started rehearsal with prayer (and Dustin telling us scary things about his foot . . . he has some kind of rare skin disease). Then Dustin told us that we were going to choreograph the Thirteenth of Adar and Haman’s Welcome that night. The first one is a song when Haman determines when he’s going to kill all the Jews, and the second one is a fun song at the start of Act 2 where Haman tells the audience that Act 2 is going to rock.

As often happens, we got onstage and started learning choreography, and everything else kind of went out of my mind. Including my thoughts of dropping, for the moment. Again, if you want to see the choreography that we did, you’ll have to come see the show. But it’s freakin’ awesome. All of us guys worked so hard . . . we were all literally dripping at the end of rehearsal. Which I guess isn’t actually all that impressive. But yeah. It was hard.

So anyway, because we were working so hard, and because the choreography was so cool, we were having a blast and really bonding with each other. Then we started doing the second song, and it’s seriously going to be one of the coolest choreographed songs in Lifehouse history, I think. It’s very hard, and very physically taxing, but it’s really fun.

I got home that night, and I took a shower before going to bed. As I was brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed, I remembered that I was considering dropping. I thought back over the rehearsal, over how fun it had been, how hard it had been, how much I’d bonded with the other guys. And I said to myself, “Well, I’ve made up my mind. I’m not dropping.”

Not like any of you really care, but that’s the story. Since the main purpose of this blog is to chronicle the ever-continuing story of my life, I figured I should tell y’all. (End Cormack Reading — Day 2)

Now let’s see, what happened after that . . . well, on Thursday, I woke up, and my leg was so sore from the previous night that I could barely walk . . . that wasn’t fun. Thankfully, I didn’t have rehearsal that night, so I didn’t have to move very much.

I had my second Torrey (Biola program thingy) class on Thursday, and things started to get interesting . . . the first class had basically been spent covering the stuff that the tutor was unable to cover in orientation. We were discussing Genesis on Thursday, and we spent most of the time making a summary of it. He (the tutor) had us each take three or four chapters and try to summarize them in four words or less. It was interesting. Then he was asking us about what Genesis as a book was about, and then what we thought the author’s purpose in writing the book was. So it was interesting, but not overly so.

Which brings us to Friday, yesterday. As usual, there was no rehearsal on Friday night. However, Rachel and Preston and I had arranged to go see Preston in Once Upon a Mattress at Heartland Players, then have a slumber party (if three people can be called that) at Preston’s house afterwards. So Rachel and I went to see the play, and I of course must review it.

I can describe the essence of the play in 8 words: The Most Freakin’ Hilarious Thing I’ve Ever Seen. Basically, it’s the story of the Princess and the pea, but they say that we all hear the fairy tale, but here’s what REALLY happened. It’s awesome . . . the prince is a total wus and idiot . . . the king is under a curse and can’t talk, so he has to pantomime everything, and the princess is from the swamp, and is more manly than the prince.

The main plot is much the same as the fairy tale, only funnier. There’s also a subplot involving a knight (Sir Harry, played by none other than Dustin) and his girlfriend, who can’t get married (by law) until after the prince is married. Which wouldn’t be funny at all were it not for Dustin’s incredible acting ability.

In any case, the king is the best character, and is made even better by the fact that he was played by none other then *snicker* Steve, the director of Oliver. It’s actually probably the most difficult part to play in the show, because he can’t open his mouth when he’s onstage (until the curse is broken at the end). But he’s really funny to watch, because he does all of his lines like a game of Charades with the person he’s talking to. And my favorite part . . . were it not for the king’s being mute, I probably wouldn’t have thought it should even be in the play. But it was sooo funny. The king has to have “the talk” with the prince, but this is made difficult because the king cannot talk. Of course, it would be easy to turn that into a very inappropriate scene. But they didn’t. They had the king trying to speak in examples, which was quite amusing as the prince is a total idiot. “Okay . . . there’s a boy flower, and a girl flower . . . and there’s a seed . . . and it becomes a baby flower . . . I . . . I don’t get it.” (End Cormack Reading — Day 3)

So yeah. It rocked. After the play was over, Rachel and I were hanging out in the lobby talking to people we knew from the show while we waited for Preston. Then finally Preston came out, and his mother arrived, and we went back to his house.

It was a lot of fun, but there’s really not a whole lot to write about. We spent most of the time just talking, or playing video games, or watching movies. We had a few . . . interesting moments . . . Preston needs new blinds in his room now. But hey, that’s what you get for giving me a stick.

I had planned to give a list of funny quotes, but I forget what they all were. I remember only one, and here it is:

“WHEN did I get a dog??”

And even that isn’t really very funny without context. So I shall now move on to comments:

Stephen: Really? You mean that if I wanted to publish a book of all my blog entries, it’s possible that I would get in legal trouble? That really sucks . . . and that’s the only part of your comment that I understood. Advanced science (or whatever it was . . . physics, possibly?) is beyond me.

Rae: Uh-oh . . . well I’d hate for people to come to my blog and end up in smurfville. . . . And what fall retreat are we speaking of, exactly?

Cormack: How can you possibly MISS math????

Megan: Okay, okay, I’ll admit, I’m a hypocrite. So sue me. And if you look closely, you’ll notice that I mentioned the start of school in my last post, just not at length ‘cause I was too depressed about it to write a whole lot on it.