No one fights like Gaston, douses lights like Gaston!

The show has closed. Wild applause is over. Standing ovations at every performance. I've never seen a reaction to a song from the onstage side as we received for "Be Our Guest" every single performance. It was kind of an incredible feeling, I have to admit. I'm glad it all worked out. Gina is absolutely amazing!

So, I continued with "An injury each performance" streak. How excited I was to be run into (hard) by Maurice and Belle on Friday. Saturday afternoon, I fell a little differently during "The Battle" and ended up with a new bruise (I've never received so many bruises during a show!). Sunday afternoon, Paul (aka My Stalker! More about this soon) tromped on my foot pretty hard during the "Gaston" song, making me forget about Saturday evening's injury.

Saturday evening was a DOOZY!!!! Weston, one of our techies, liked to joke around with me backstage. He's kind of an odd duck, and comes across pretty strong. He's a nice kid, though, and can make me laugh. Anyway, I was standing, and he decided to do a Bogart impression "Here's looking at you, kid" as he chucked my chin. I think he did it a little harder than he meant to (though it should NOT have resulted in the injury I received). As soon as he did, I felt so much pain! I whispered "OUCH!!!!" and ran to the other side of the stage to my dressing room. Weston tried to follow me, "What did I do?" "Stop! Leave me alone!!" I grabbed my ibuprofen, swallowed it, and clutching my right lower chee/jawline ran back to stage left and onstage for "Gaston!" My cheek hurt soooooooooooooo much, it was hard to smile and look like I was having fun in the tavern. I had to run and change after that for "Be Our Guest." Amy, the resident pediatritian in the cast, checked it out. It was swollen pretty well. We got ice, checked my teeth (all fine) and applied it for the rest of the show. It was kind of obnoxious to have literally every person in the cast come up to me, "Lynette, what HAPPENED?" "I was accidentally punched by Weston." Then, with eyes narrowed, "Do you want me to hit him?" or "I could make him disappear." or "Did you hit him back?" I felt sorry for the poor guy. Sunday, he brought me flowers, along with many other apologies. Apparently, everyone was pretty upset with him! It was an accident, so I think I feel worse for him than myself. Sunday, it looked as though I was growing a second head from my cheek. I've been taking Aleve, since it's an anti-inflamatory, and therefore cannot take any ibuprofen. I'm still applying ice packs, so I can numb it and not feel the pain. Ugh.

So, my stalker. Yeah, that's been . . . interesting. Chris and I, being the good friends (I'm even counting him as one of my best friends here in Carson) would talk a lot during rehearsals and shows; when we could. During Hell Week, Paul (my stalker) came up to us once and talked to us, then left. Chris turned to me, "He seems to like being around you a lot." I started to pay attention to that. YES, HE WAS!!!!! He wasn't always talking to me, but would purposely come and sit nearby me. It's kind of creepy. Then, he would do/say weird things. Like, one performance, I was sitting on a bench backstage, kind of away from everyone else. I wanted the quiet, and it was a great place to watch the show without being seen. He came up to me. "Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine." "You sure?" "Yup." "Okay," (in a tone of slight disbelief). He sat on the floor, at my feet. After about a minute, he looked up, "Tell me a story, teacher!" Sadly, that was not the only time he did it. The first time he did, I said, "Once upon a time, there was a redhead who hated everybody. So, whenever someone came near her, she'd kill them. People soon learned to stay away from her, and she lived happily ever after. The end." Clearly, it was a joke, but he took it seriously for awhile! Weird, weird, stalker-boy.

Jessica, Jason, Leigha, and Brianna came out from Colorado to see it. They loved it. Jess said that it was the best community production she'd ever seen. Leigha wanted to meet everyone. I introduced her to Lumiere (Chris), Beast (Leoney), Gaston (Jerry), Belle (Juliana), Mrs. Potts (Caitlyn), The Silly Girls (Hana, Therese, and Mandy), Monsieur D'Arque (Dave Anderson), Cogsworth (Dave Tillett), and several chorus people. It was so fun! Everyone asked her what her favorite part was. Guess what she said? My adorable 5 year old niece told everyone, "When Aunt Lynette danceded." Ahhh! She sat with Kristen. Apparently Kristen pointed me out the first time I was onstage, and every other time, Leigha was able to find me! She even spotted me as a table before Kristen did! I adore my niece. Oh, and she had to show Juliana her new sandals which have Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora on them!

So, once again, a crazy weekend. And the stage is struck. I will probably never have another opportunity to be in this show, so I am glad I stuck with it! I got to meet so many great people, start the SSS, have a lot of laughs, and at least one moment of pain each show. Talk about a magical experience! :)

I start rehearsals for Shrew on Tuesday, and have to be late because I'm singing at WNCC's graduation. I'm auditioning in a week and a day for Crazy for You and Fiddler on the Roof with WNMTC. Huzzah! I love being involved in theatre again--real theatre. I was kinda going nuts without that creative outlet. I'm not sorry I took the time off, but I am so relieved to be back.

The title of this post comes from the song "Gaston" from, what else, Beauty and the Beast. Thank you Weston for inspiring this post!