A Song From the Heart
The rewarding part of production week is the production. Saturday night was the premiere performance of A Song From the Heart, a play written by Xian Xian Cui, our student director. As a 17-year old junior in high school, she knew exactly how she wanted her play to be and she did a fabulous job of making it happen.
It's a story of two girls - one with lots of talent who's been given a tough lot in life, and one who has no talent but has a rich, influential father. The poor girl, Amy, is working to support her little sister and sick mother. When she is given an opportunity to star as the lead character in a musical, she thinks it's too good to be true.......and she was right. The rich girl, Lina, comes along and uses her money and power to kick Amy out so she can play the leading role. As the story plays out, Amy learns the beauty of forgiveness, while Lina learns that friends are more valuable than money. In the end, Lina decides not to show up on the day of the performance so that Amy (who already knew all the lines and songs) could be main character like she truly deserved.
My role in the play is Laura, the owner of "Big Mama's Cafe." Amy works in my little cafe and I am good friends with the director. Several of the scenes take place in my cafe and give advice to them as the need arises. I sympathize with their sorrows and celebrate their successes with them.
My role was fun to play because I got to set up my own little cafe and serve my customers as they came and went. And during the intermission, I opened my cafe for business to the audience to buy drinks and cookies and we made about $60 between the two nights!
Here's the play in pictures..... (some pictures are from Saturday night and some from Sunday).
I sang "Over the Rainbow" in my cafe for the opening scene (the video was too large to upload). After the song, I went back to work serving my customers.
Amy, the poor, but talented girl also sang a couple of solos and did a fantastic job. She is really talented in real life too!
The girls are practicing at the studio with Mr. D (Sean) at the piano
Bev played the role of "Mrs. White" - Lina's mother - who demanded that "her baby" have anything she wanted.
These pictures capture the personality of Mr. D - he's often very loud and way over the top! Sean did a great job playing the role.
Back at the cafe.....helping the girls with their problems.....
The final scene, everyone comes to my cafe to celebrate their success.
The proud director and me.
Sean, Bev and me toasting to the successful show
Me and "kuya" Ernie - he's the father of two of our actresses and a great help!
All the missionaries with some of the students.....it won't be very long until we all part ways :(
The after party! We all headed down to Oleai's on Saturday night
Three of my favorite girls - I'm gonna miss these girls!
3 of my roommates.....I'm gonna miss these girls, too!
Over all, both performances went really well. On Wednesday afternoon, we're heading to Palau to perform for the church and schools there. On Saturday night, we'll perform "A Song From the Heart" again.....and for the last time. That will be the end of our season. It'll be nice to have a little more free time again, but it will be sad to see the team part for good. :(
It's a story of two girls - one with lots of talent who's been given a tough lot in life, and one who has no talent but has a rich, influential father. The poor girl, Amy, is working to support her little sister and sick mother. When she is given an opportunity to star as the lead character in a musical, she thinks it's too good to be true.......and she was right. The rich girl, Lina, comes along and uses her money and power to kick Amy out so she can play the leading role. As the story plays out, Amy learns the beauty of forgiveness, while Lina learns that friends are more valuable than money. In the end, Lina decides not to show up on the day of the performance so that Amy (who already knew all the lines and songs) could be main character like she truly deserved.
My role in the play is Laura, the owner of "Big Mama's Cafe." Amy works in my little cafe and I am good friends with the director. Several of the scenes take place in my cafe and give advice to them as the need arises. I sympathize with their sorrows and celebrate their successes with them.
My role was fun to play because I got to set up my own little cafe and serve my customers as they came and went. And during the intermission, I opened my cafe for business to the audience to buy drinks and cookies and we made about $60 between the two nights!Here's the play in pictures..... (some pictures are from Saturday night and some from Sunday).
Back stage before the performance.......the girl's dressing room was a disaster by the end of the show!!
I sang "Over the Rainbow" in my cafe for the opening scene (the video was too large to upload). After the song, I went back to work serving my customers.
Amy, the poor, but talented girl also sang a couple of solos and did a fantastic job. She is really talented in real life too!
The girls are practicing at the studio with Mr. D (Sean) at the piano
Bev played the role of "Mrs. White" - Lina's mother - who demanded that "her baby" have anything she wanted.
These pictures capture the personality of Mr. D - he's often very loud and way over the top! Sean did a great job playing the role.
Back at the cafe.....helping the girls with their problems.....
The final scene, everyone comes to my cafe to celebrate their success.
The complete cast after the show.
The proud director and me.
Sean, Bev and me toasting to the successful show
Me and "kuya" Ernie - he's the father of two of our actresses and a great help!
All the missionaries with some of the students.....it won't be very long until we all part ways :(
The after party! We all headed down to Oleai's on Saturday night
Three of my favorite girls - I'm gonna miss these girls!
3 of my roommates.....I'm gonna miss these girls, too!
Over all, both performances went really well. On Wednesday afternoon, we're heading to Palau to perform for the church and schools there. On Saturday night, we'll perform "A Song From the Heart" again.....and for the last time. That will be the end of our season. It'll be nice to have a little more free time again, but it will be sad to see the team part for good. :(
Comments
cant believe your time there is almost over... im sad inside for you, yet just like undergrad at CUC - life must continue on... nothing is ever static.
hope things go well in palau. cant wait to chat.
love sj