Bells and Cups and Singing, Oh My

Harnett Off-Broadway.
Four nights. March. Every year.
Harnett County’s Annual Celebration of the Arts.
Every school performs.
One act. 10 minutes.
Up to 45 students.
Nothing is judged. Officially.
But everything is judged. Unofficially.
“I want this year’s performance to be so good that it knocks my socks off.”
A lot of pressure.

Friends: I’m not a flashy person. I know. You’re shocked. I don’t do fancy costumes that can only be worn once. I don’t do catchy show-tunes that have little meaning. I’m too practical for the costumes and I’m too focused with teaching about life to do something that either doesn’t have a theme or doesn’t convey a message.

And so…Harnett Off-Broadway, more affectionately known as HOB, is not my favorite event of the year. I’m always afraid that my school’s performance will disappoint parents and administration. And that’s a lot of pressure for this recovering people pleaser.

The process of selecting HOB music each year is not a fun one for me. I first catch an idea or two from a song or theme and then wait for everything to fall into place. This year in particular, I had three completely different trains of thought but had decided on one of them based on its message and ease of preparation. I had discussed costuming and staging with Barb the Art Teacher and shared my thinking with some of my coworkers…and yet it didn’t feel right. One of the other ideas didn’t feel right either, but the third idea made no sense. I had bits and pieces of a production but nothing to hold it together…until the final piece fell into place.

Ever since we started practicing, I’ve told the kids that if we get this performance right then it’s going to look and sound very simple. Yet it’s not. It’s actually really hard. We’re providing our own accompaniment and singing a solid two columned page full of original lyrics. When everyone is together, I must attempt to conduct three different small groups of children. If one group gets off, then it throws off the others. The song is a recipe for disaster…or a chance to present a great world-premiere. I’m really hoping for the latter.

If it had been up to me and my performance during practice this afternoon, then I would have helped create a disaster. I kept forgetting or singing the wrong words. I kept forgetting when to play what and I kept throwing my cup on the floor. [One group is doing the cup game.] The girls I was standing near kept looking at me and laughing. I deserved it. They have become the pros. I am now the novice. They make it look easy. I made it look like the difficult task that it is.

Our performance is next Thursday night. We still have a lot of work to do in between now and then. But my hope is that my kids will keep learning and that they will keep making the very difficult look easy and that they will remember this experience as a wonderful and possibly formational time in their lives…even if it’s a time that completely stresses their teacher out!