Well, it finally happened! Project 365 opened on Saturday evening. It was a crazy long day, because we had a final run through that morning, then a giant move over to the theatre, then dress rehearsal, and THEN the first performance!A huge THANK YOU to the Laursens, aka Mountain Mike's Pizza royalty, that gave us free pizza for our cast and crew before the show! They pulled out all the stops, we even got dessert pizza, yum :)

Then the show began! It turned out in the end, that the audience and the performers had a very different experience. The audience has reported that it was a good show, with just a couple of missed lines here and there. What was ACTUALLY happening backstage was that our tech crew missed a lot of cues, and it made things a bit messy. It was a total bummer, since we were using the theatre’s professional sound & lighting company (there’s $50 an hour we’ll never see again!), but was also a blessing because Mr. Mistake Maker was actually a really nice guy and as far as I could tell, everyone got along really great with him :)

One of our cast members is battling cancer, and this has been no secret. Some of us have prayed ferociously for him, and the performance turned out to just be too much for him. Especially when you take into account the 15 hour day we had from start to finish. During Act 2, things went a little nuts, and he ended up having to leave before the performance was over. Fortunately, some of the younger actors in the show turned out to be total ad libbing rockstars and covered up the absence better than I could have ever hoped or expected. Everyone pulled together, and we really experienced a ministry moment that taught us a ton!

Sunday (yesterday’s matinee) was FLAWLESS. Okay not really, but it was pretty darn spectacular! We had more people than seats, and the dancers and actors were AMAZING! God totally anointed it all! I was super happy that Bekie came and brought a friend, and Sharlotte (one of Sam’s primary nurses), came with her husband. Alan, Amy, my whole family and Frank’s whole family came to opening night too, so it was a pretty sweet weekend :)

One of the people who received one of our free outreach tickets now wants to get her daughter involved in our dance program (woo hoo!) and some of our opening night audience came back for the Sunday show to see it again.

I think the majority of the cast and crew felt victorious and blessed, and that is a great gift too! Next week after our final two shows, I will have actual pictures and video of it – but right now I don’t want to give anything away for those of you still coming!

Next week, recruiters from Rock the Block California will be coming to see the show and "audition" us for further opportunities, and a filmmaker will also be stopping by to do a piece for his TV show about the children we used for the production and the process of dance ministry in general.


Exciting stuff!

Me & Kelly backstage at Project 365 @ the NCDC theatre

Brandi & Diana overheating backstage after a dance