There's No Business Like Show Business

Whatever could possibly go wrong in show business, usually does, right? Last Friday, I had my theater students hang up flyers for our show that they made. All of the signs were approved by the vice principal, so we anticipated smooth sailing up until the show with the administration. This is why I don’t like to have optimistic thoughts. Apparently, the principal won’t allow us to perform on one of those dates because it’s on the day of the championship soccer game and nobody will want to go. Fair enough, but I had these dates locked in since January for a reason. I have 13 kids with all different schedules to work around. Besides, I think I speak for most theater geeks when I say we don’t really care about sports, so I’m sure some people would attend. Who even played in the Superbowl this year? I don’t know, nor do I care. I’m only sad I missed out on the half-time show and snacks. That being said, if these Germans think I’m going to pay attention to the biggest soccer game of the year, they’re sorely mistaken. Now, two weeks before my show, I need to change the date and pray that all of the actors won’t have a schedule conflict? What’s even better is that our principal was upset that we didn’t formally invite him. I’m new to teaching, but I was under the impression that since the dates were locked in, he would see the flyers like everyone else and come if he had time. Silly me. A heads-up from anyone in the school that we’ve been talking to about the show for months would have been nice about all of these things.

Not how I was planning on spending the day before we left for Barcelona, but it was obviously a problem that couldn’t wait. Alex and I found the head theater woman, and we settled on a new date the following week. It would have to do since the room was booked every other day. Then, we typed a letter to the principal cordially inviting him to the show. Yes, these tasks all sound simple, but try doing them in German. It triples your time… and your anxiety.

I bumped into my younger theater students and told them to check their emails. They don’t like emailing so a verbal reminder to check it is required. As soon as I got home, I sent an email to the American Theater Group to inform them of our change in show dates. Upon hitting send, I pictured Alex and myself wearing wigs and filling in for all of our potential no-shows. I was hoping to pack all my clothes today for the trip since I’m crazy anal about making sure everything that needs to be packed won’t be forgotten, but I’ve been a little too easily persuaded to drink some wine and play the Wii instead.