Day 1420: Opening night for Lion King

I finished the final editing of another chapter today.  It's the one about the origin of backpacking in Fredonia with a program called Atlantis in the 1970s.   I had to neutralize the dates because of conflicting information from the people I interviewed, news article and written records.  Instead of saying something happened in 1974, I said early 70s.  Some may object to the lack of precision, but I think it's safer than being wrong.  Memories can be faulty or incomplete, newspaper articles are notoriously incorrect.   So, fifteen down and eight to go!

The show tonight was awesome!  I am so impressed with the kids, but even more impressed with Ben!   I think about him as a performer years ago in 42nd Street and Les Mis and a few others.  Now, he's the director and a very capable one at just 29 years old.  He's assisted by Ben S. who was one of the leads in Joseph and Ragtime.  And now the makeup director is Brittany who was a lead in Godspell and Fiddler.  They all benefitted from the musical program and now are giving back.  How fortunate our community is to have them.

I took about five hundred photos between the Nov. 14 rehearsal, the dress rehearsal and tonight.  They needed lots of editing and of course, I deleted a good chunk of them.  Lloyd will make DVDs for everyone so the families can have a pictorial record of this great experience.

Nala the younger and the elder

Scar

Some of the hardworking stage crew

Light and sound crew

An ostrich of exquisite beauty

Stage manager extraordinaire

with his broom after the show