a night on broadway

I am our stake's cultural arts director. As part of that calling, I am responsible for two activities a year. One is the Christmas Choirside that we do in December. The other activity varies in theme but usually happens in the spring. This year I proposed doing a stake Broadway revue.

I wrangled my good friend, Lisa, into being my assistant director. She was amazing and I could not have pulled this off without her. We began with a casting call in January. Stake members either came with a specific song that they wanted to perform or sang a church hymn/Primary song so they could be included in one of the three large ensembles. We had rehearsals on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings in January and February.

The activity was on March 8. We did two shows and had a great turn out from the stake. I think we ended up with a great line up with a good mix of performers and Broadway shows. I was able to get a live band for several of the numbers with the help of the awesome and talented people in my ward.

Sawyer and Nathan were in the children's ensemble. They keep asking me when we are going to do it again. Emma felt forced into performing but I think had fun in the end. Dave loved the whole thing and spent lots of time singing his songs until all the kids knew them too.

More pictures here.
Videos of the shows here.

It was a crazy amount of work but I think it was a positive experience for all involved from performers to audience. I had never really been in the director position before. I thought it would be hard to watch and not feel sad that I wasn't performing myself. In reality though, it was awesome to sit back and feel great satisfaction at what I (with lots of help) was able to pull together.