Dinner & a show

I got a call from Beffie yesterday (refresher: she is Husband's 18 year old cousin, senior in high school). Last night they were having dinner theater at her school & RL couldn't make it so Uncle E & Aunt C had an extra ticket. I got to leave the FarmHands in their father's care & head off for a night of singing, dancing, and red velvet cake.

It's a HUGE event around here. In all I think about 1,200 people see this production every year. The school has 60% of the student body in choir and or band. If I've heard my statistics correctly, most schools only boast a 10% enrollment in music programs.

They served dinner while students sang individually, then the show began in earnest with the Show Choir, Girls' Choir, Boys' Choir, Full Choir, Jazz Band, and Full Band each preforming a few times. The theme for the evening was Motown...and I have to say, for the most part, they were really good. Surprisingly good for a school with less students than I had in my graduating class.

During the dinner music one girl sang a song called The Chance. The young lady singing lost her mother to cancer last summer (I think) and if you check out the lyrics to the song you'll understand what happened next. She got through the first line of the song before she completely choked up. She stood in the spotlight fighting for composure while the situation began to sink in on the audience. Slowly all the students serving & working at the event came to a stand still. One girl walked up on stage to stand next to her quietly weeping friend, held her hand, and nodded at her. The young lady regained enough of her composure to sing the chorus of the song, but never did get out more than a line of the verses. In the end she probably sang 1/4 of the song turned away from the audience, looking intently at her friend who stood a few feet from her nodding & smiling gently at her. When the song ended, the entire audience was on it's feet cheering for her. There were very few dry eyes in the room. I've never met the girl or her mother, but there were tears in my eyes too. I cannot imagine what it took for her to get up on stage & attempt that song in the first place.

There was another girl, a tiny little thing, who got up with the full choir to sing Aretha's Respect. I wasn't really expecting much since it is a very difficult song to sing (really, they should outlaw it at Karaoke night...drunk chicks cannot sing as well as they think they can) & it was a high school show. Let me tell you, that girl could sing. She belted that song out like nobody's business. I was floored.

For a school with a 99.9% Caucasian population, they did Motown much better than I expected. Good job, y'all!