Life After The Ball

So my plan to post after every "Cinderella Reimagined" show did not exactly go as planned. Seven performances is a lot for a group that usually does three or four, and yet the time just slipped away so quickly, there was no time or patience left for the ordeal of fighting with Blogger's picture uploader.

I have more photos below, but seriously check out this amazing slideshow. It captured every poignant moment of our production.

But now life has calmed down, and here we are - 5 days post-Cinderella. The 7 performances were a dream come true. Over 20 audience members made a decision for Christ, and many more wrote us emails and/or came up to us after the show to thank us for our uplifting, encouraging message. We got almost 100% positive feedback - either the show totally rocked, or like someone told me once - friends and family lie to you and tell you that you did great because that is just what you do for church plays.

I don't think that was the case this year, as we gave away over 545 free outreach tickets to total strangers. And the craziest thing? The strangers showed up in droves. Every show was full, and the final performance was pure craziness.

We had a mix up with the times the janitor received, and so we were locked out of the theatre until 4pm, which is the time our show was supposed to start. After a brief mental breakdown, I pow wowed the dancers and told them the issue, and left Steve and Jill in charge of telling every audience member that um, well, we would be starting half hour late and sorry.

God was beyond nice to us - it was the perfect time of day for lots of shade outside the building, not a single audience member got angry, and the line was so long for the show, that we did not have a single seat left. We had to add extra chairs and cram people in way beyond fire code regulations. And the last performance was a goodie.

Thanks, Jesus. You are so amazing. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this. Here are some final shots of the show - and I try to be a better blogger. Probably.

It is tradition around Turning Point to rejoice when you wear your first hole into your dance shoe. Nicole and Little Jessica (LJ) received their first holes our second weekend. Much rejoicing was had at becoming a "real" dancer.

I cherish our adult dancers. Diana is my heart, hero and inspiration <3 style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 504px; height: 378px;" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iKPgrlZqrSo/S9tlXQd1X8I/AAAAAAAABLY/JlIZOUmGBCA/s640/IMG_0882.JPG" alt="" border="0">The Valeros are an amazing family. And they gave Sam the best seat in the house during our obscenely crowded final performance.

Cheering and screaming backstage after our final performance.

The cast presented me with flowers after the last show. I was really honored. And here is everyone. We have an overpopulation issue in creative arts right now. But it's also really fun.

This was taken during the show. I shouldn't allow such antics. But I was busy being in the photo.

Oops again. ;)
I love LJ. She is such a sweetie.