If I could have chosen the last Hanes Theatre play I ever worked on, I would have chosen Sweeney Todd, but The Secret Garden is the obvious second. The play completed my perfect record of participation in high school shows. Secret Garden is an awesome musical with a ton of special effects and a lot for the technicians to do.

The story is that of an orphan girl who finds herself living in her aloof uncle's mansion. Left to her own devices and watched over by spirits, she discovers an invalid boy and a beautiful private garden. It becomes clear that there is something magical about the garden, and the music swells triumphantly.

The experience was good because the artistic elements were surprisingly well-matched. Everyone seemed to be on the same page, and the elements came together very well. The lighting complemented the costumes and scenery, which complemented the choreography, which complemented the singing and acting elements, which went very well with the instrumental accompaniment. It all fit together quite well.

I had to go to a wedding the weekend before opening weekend for the show, so I had a lot of work to do in a small space of time. Using ETC's offline show editor, I was able to do a lot of this work from home and load it into the lighting board when I got back to school. I used this method to rough in my cues, but I still needed to tweak levels, which was only possible from the theatre. By preview night, though, I felt that everything was in order, and I turned the show over to Tamsin, the stage manager.

During the run of the show, I told the four follow spotlight operators where to direct their beams. They are bright people, however, and after a time I was not needed. I was able to sit and watch my lighting unfold perfectly with no input from me at all.

The performers were excellent as well. Sorrells exercised some judgment and kept the cast smaller than previous ones. This meant a final cast of talented and experienced singers, making for an excellent sound. Mr. Nabors, as the vocal director, did a great job of making them sound good.

Originally I intended to record a documentary about the making of this show, and it would have been an excellent video, but my senior year was far too busy for something like that. I abandoned the video and gave my footage away.

This was truly an excellent show to go out on. I expected to cry or something when it was over (I'd seen this reaction in others after the last show of their senior years), but I knew there would be more plays and more opportunities to participate in incredible theatre, so I couldn't make myself sad.

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