Final Shows of the Semester

{press play, then read}

Over the course of this semester, Cast A rehearsed for hundreds of hours and performed over 36 shows (and mini shows!). What's amazing is even though we did the same show over and over again, it never got boring. I LOVED doing the show, and even though there were definite moments of frustration (like being sick and not being able to sing, or not being a part of a particular part of the show as a dancer or soloist), I still always looked forward to performing for our audiences world wide.

On June 8th, Cast A arrived at Centro Cultural Universitario Bicentenario in San Luis Potosi for our last show day - which also happened to be a double show day! Phew! We had a ton of emotions built up, and I knew it was going to be an emotional day from start to finish. Let's just say I started crying during our WARM-UPS at 10am! haha. Oh well...sometimes it's a good thing to cry...it means the whole experience was worth it!

We had a fun warm-up with all the past round interns in both vocals and dance. Brekken, Molly, and Sage warmed us up vocally, and then Collin, Hector, and Sarah led us in a dance warm-up. Good times and lots of great memories! We sang lots of songs that our vocal instructor, John, has taught us over the semester including "In Your Arms a While" which means a lot to us all. 

We headed into rehearsal, which was VERY brief and very fast. We got through what we needed to before breaking for a quick lunch, and when we returned for what we THOUGHT was more rehearsal, the band started playing all of our country songs from the International Medley. Let me explain...for nearly every country we visited {Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, and Mexico}, we had a song (or a few) from the country to show our thanks to that country. We had so much fun revisiting all of those songs since they brought back so many memories. Our cast stood on stage, held each other, and had a blast singing!

We took some time to appreciate and honor two of our Production staff members who are leaving UWP after this semester, John (vocals) and Wouter (band). Afterwards, our staff took time to get us pumped up and ready for our last show by telling us why and how they are proud of our cast. It was an emotional experience to see our entire cast wrapped up in arms and hugs around the stage listening to our staff. We were ready!

We got ready for our final Green Room, which we also knew would be emotional, and headed down to our meeting space. The staff ended it like they started it- with a big dance party to "Die Young" by Ke$sha, and then we had more "Right Now" moments where the staff walked by with ideas like "Right now your final audiences are waiting to see Voices," "Right now your real families are waiting for you to come home," "Right now all of your host families are missing you," "Right now, we are PROUD of you," etc. Made us cry, of course! Nicole finished reading us "Oh the Places You Will Go" by Dr. Seuss (which we started reading in Orlando, FL), and we had more time to just soak it all in. Then, it was show time!

Our first show was great, and our host family came that afternoon. It was great having everyone in the audience! We took some pictures after the show with our sweet little girls!

If our 1st show was great, our 2nd show was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Everyone was so passionate and so energized to just give it all to this audience one last time. No words can describe how alive our cast was - the energy was radiating off the stage. We gave it our all because we knew this was the last time Cast A 2013 would perform together on one stage. It was so incredible.

During our finale, the entire audience began waving white tissues that the staff had distributed without us knowing. The staff lined the aisles and nearly everyone on stage was crying. What a release. We ended SO strongly.

Mozart's Requiem from Austria - International Medley

Temba, Tumba, Timba from Cuba - International Medley

Backwards from USA - International Medley

Corre Boulevard from Mexico - International Medley

Shosholoza from South Africa - International Medley

Jai Ho from India - International Medley

End of the Mexican medley - International Medley

HOME

90s Medley pictures - the dance I got to dance!

Our Finale of Voices! AMAZING!

We had our finale strike song which was so much fun, and then we got to work doing our strike tasks. At the end of the night, we were shuffled outside (in the rain, mind you), and the staff showered us with champagne. Oh good grief. Going home wet, cold, and smelling like alcohol. We obviously made a good impression on our host mom! haha. We explained the smell. =P

I will NEVER forget our final show and what an amazing experience it was. It's a memory I will always cherish in my heart.