A couple of my (older) friends were singing, so I didn't mind at all having to go.

Plus I got a four-course meal free. Did I mind? At all?

Answer: NO.

Me and Jessica got there and she was introducing me around to some of the crew. Then the director decides that he wants two spotlights for the show instead of one. Oh, and he wants one to be colored during the "Cabaret" number.

"But where do we get a person to run the second spotlight?"

The question to end all questions. Not really, but to me it was like Armageddon in the Backstage Area. I knew what was coming. I'm not totally stupid.

"Hey Elizabeth, do ya mind?" Chandler, the director, asks.

I grin sheepishly because little does he know, I've never run a spotlight before. Much less on a five-minute short notice.

"No. Of course I don't mind."

So we drag out the second spotlight and through ten minutes of painstaking work not done by me, thankfully, we get the spotlight on the platform. By now, it's waaaay time to start. Like, we're running five minutes late already. I haven't even practiced with the damned thing. I haven't even touched it.

I don't know how to turn it on, I don't know how to fade it out, I don't knw how to focus it, I don't know how to make it change colors, etc, etc.

So the show starts and Jessica and I are talking frantically on our headsets trying to figure out what I'm going to do. The first song was a solo, so she did it by herself. She talked me through aiming the spotlight, turning it on, and what all the little buttons and levers meant.

All during just one song.

Sheesh.

So the second song starts. They're doing "Phantom of the Opera" from, what else, "Phantom of the Opera." Christine, the girl, is already onstage from the previous song. But the guy who was playing the Phantom entered from stage left, and I am positioned on stage right.

"I'm fading her out! Follow her! I'll get him!" Jessica whispers frantically.

So I turned on my spotlight and it was totally on the opposite end of the stage. Whoops. But I recover and get her in the spotlight.

Whoo, the damned spotlight is freaking heavy. I mean, seriously. It's like having a fire a canon or something.

I think they just wanted to confuse me, though. Christine and the Phantom, that is. They kept crossing paths and, for all you non-spotlight-running-people, the two spotlights are never supposed to cross. So when they switched like that, I just followed the one that was on my side, whichever person it was, it didn't matter.

They ran. They switched places. They fell down. They did all kinds of crazy shit just to confuse me.

So during intermission, they decided that having the second spotlight for the rest of the show really wasn't necessary (because I fucked it up) and that I was great but I can go watch the show now.

Right. I was bad. I understand.

But they assured me that I was meant to be on stage, not put a spotlight on other people.

That helped a little, but they still had to tell me that I sucked.

So I sat down and ate my four-course meal and chatted a bit with Jessica's mother, Kathy, who was sitting at the same table.

As soon as I needed some more tea, a waitress came over to take my old glass. I looked back at her only for a split second and I realized who it was.

The girl who is a year older than me who used to go to my school and made my life miserable until she graduated!!! She had to bring me my food!!! It was the best poetical retribution a girl could ever ask for.

Score!! Alexa: 1. Bitch From School: ZERO. ZIP. ZILCH. NADA.

BWAHAHAHA!

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The nominees for the Starlight Awards were announced yesterday.

The Starlight Awards are the annual awards that the theatre gives out to the people who were involved in shows the previous season.

I am up for Best Lead Actress, against, who else, MY MOM!!!!!!

She was a lead in the show right before mine, and it totally slipped my mind.

Jessica is up for Best Supporting Actress, for the show we did together.

I forget who else was nominated because I was freaking out so much about being pitted up against my mom.

I mean, my mom has been doing theatre since she said her first words. She's been on TV. She's been in movies. She's eve a member of the Screen Fucking Actors Guild, okay? Everybody in town totally knows who she is.

So me being up against her really sucks for me.

Uuuggghhh. This is just my luck.

There should be a rule against this, or something. I'll have to research it: "Mothers And Daughters Who Have Killed Each Other To Win An Award."

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I don't know if I feel like going out tonight like I planned.

My friends are all assholes and I feel like being anti-social, okay?

© alexa

The counter keeps breaking and pissing me off, so NO MORE COUNTER! Mwahaha!