Power In His Touch

Yesterday was closing night for "Power In His Touch." Rehearsals started in January. For the past 3 weeks, it's been every night...getting home around 11:00 or later. Costume fittings. Helping with the set. Performing two nights at the Peery Egyptian Theatre and two nights at the Rose Wagner. We're ready to be done! We made a lot of friends and are happily anticipating the cast party. But we are ready to get our lives back.
"Power In His Touch" was an Easter musical. It explored a fictional back story of the woman taken in adultery in the bible, and also Judas Iscariot...trying to maybe understand what could've led them to do the things they did.
Some memories...
* In one of the opening scenes we sing a song called "King of the Jews." It's a chaotic scene. On the streets of Jerusalem, all of us acting out every day life. The Wisemen are wandering around "searching for a king..." Herod, nervous, decrees "this child cannot live..." and sends out his Roman soldiers who are then also "searching for a king..." A woman yells out "They've come to kill the children!" And then mass panic takes over. Screaming, running. The soldiers are killing babies. Julianne and I get shoved hard by one of the soldiers. We're screaming and running and crying....all while singing. Sounds horrible, doesn't it? It's both mine and Julianne's favorite scene! But what struck me as humorous every time we did the scene...because we didn't have enough men, and because the soldier costumes disguise well enough, two of the soldiers out there killing babies...were the men who later play Jesus and Judas. :) It always made me laugh a little that the soldier who was shoving me hard enough that I almost fell to the floor each night, was the one who in act two would heal me from my "blindness." Guess we both played different roles in the second half of the play. His was a bit more dramatic....*As I mentioned before, I played a blind woman who gets healed during the second act. Julianne and I would wait off stage till our time to go on. Julianne was always messing around, fake singing along with the song being performed out on stage, doing silly dances. I was constantly worried she wouldn't be able to calm herself and get into character before walking out on to the stage. She cut it so close each night! But within seconds of our cue, she would abruptly stop her silliness, hold out her arm for me to grab, wiggle her fingers in front of my eyes and say "blind face!" and then lead me out on the stage. All while I was trying not to smile or giggle at her transformation from silly, present day, 12 year old to young Jewish girl leading her blind mother to Jesus.*Speaking of backstage silliness.... We had some seriously fast "quick changes." Two different scenes we had to pre-set our costumes. We'd rush off stage, change clothes and be back on stage again within a couple of minutes at the most. I'm sure it must have looked hilarious to a bystander, to watch the flurry of clothes flying around.*Moments that made me cry.... The cucifixion. Oh my. I was one of the women on stage mourning and grieving. The scene was done so well I didn't have to fake the tears.
Mary singing a lullaby to baby Jesus. This is right after "King of the Jews." Normally I've just run off stage and am gathering my stuff to head down to the dressing rooms. I stopped last night and watched the scene from the wings. Ah, sweet.
Jesus telling the woman who was caught in adultery to "go thy way and sin no more." The tears catch me off guard every time.
And, being healed. I look into Julianne's face as if I'm seeing it for the first time. And she gazes back at me. And oh, how I love that little face! I'm so glad we were able to do this show together!