Boss lady

Last year Amy was co-stage manager with Lily, but to hear Amy tell it, Lily really didn't do much. This year, the role was all hers as her middle school put on Disney's Little Mermaid. It was a bit of a tough row to hoe, but she persevered.

Amy with some of her crew, and CJ.

The teachers who run the play, Ms. Reardon (home ec teacher) and Mr. K (art teacher), are basically volunteers in their roles with the play, and the rehearsals last for months and months. Reardon, in my opinion, overreached with many aspects of this production, which made things far more stressful than they needed to be. By tech week (the week before the play), Amy was so very stressed, she basically fell apart when she got home after rehearsals. They hadn't even rehearsed the show in its entirety before opening night, so obviously stage crew hadn't had a chance to run through their responsibilities, much less get good at them. It's not like one of the actors, who can run through their music and lines basically anywhere, anytime....they need the whole kit and caboodle in order to practice their "stage crew-ing." She also felt really responsible for her crew, one of whom was her good friend Molly who she'd talked into participating – no one was having fun. The stage crew wasn't getting breaks, and they were afraid to ask for one for fear they'd get yelled at (which was apparently a reasonable thing to worry about).

It's tough when your kids get in a situation like this. It was hard to restrain myself from getting involved, but I'm glad I didn't. Instead we listened with a sympathetic ear, talked her through it, and did our best to help her think of solutions that she felt comfortable trying. Ultimately she was able to stand up for her crew a little bit, and felt good about that.

Ultimately, I think the teachers knew that stage crew could use an adult hand, because one of Mr. K's friends (CJ) jumped in on the day of the show, and he helped out for all four shows – I think that was a huge help to them.

In the end, there were some bumps for the stage crew, and Amy felt it went better than she feared, but not as well as she wanted it to. There were some minor mishaps with big set pieces being left on stage, which meant Amy had to run out and retrieve them even though the next scene had begun. Oopsies. All the actors did a great job, so I guess they didn't need as much rehearsal time as it seemed!

I think the other kids clearly knew Amy was stressed, and her old friend Morgan decided on the last day that she'd get a poster board to have all the kids write thank you messages to Amy. She nearly caught them before the final show, but they managed to keep it semi-secret (which made her very anxious, not knowing what was coming). It was a very sweet gesture.

After it was all said and done, these kids were all so emotional, they cried through their entire cast party. They all acted as if they'd never see each other again, not like they'd be back at school together in two days! During the party, Morgan stood on a table to make a big "thank you" to Amy, which ended with all the kids chanting her name.

I think Amy is partly relieved it's over, but probably a little sad too. And now that it's been a success, she somehow has forgotten how very miserable she was. (Meanwhile, I'm still mad at how she was mistreated!)

Amy's old Girl Scout leader Jill would always tell me that Amy is a good leader, and that seems to be true. She certainly took it to heart for this play, and tried to always give her crew the positive feedback that they weren't getting from the adults. And she had us give each of them "star grams" (little supportive notes parents pay to have delivered to the cast/crew, along with candy and/or a flower). She is very concerned that the younger kids didn't have a positive experience, as she really wants them to continue with theater next year.

So now we're working on getting back to a more normal schedule, which is a relief to all of us!