End of SOM

Sound of Music reached its end. On wednesday 13.03.13 the entire crew (band, actors, make up and stage directors) met at 8 am in the main building to perform the play for the first time in front of an audience. The tension was really high but as we spent a lot of time together during practice, and so we manage to help each other out. We had a few problems before the play because some changing on the music had to be done to fit better with the singing, this has been easily overcame as we manage to communicate well with each other. For the first time I was sitting behind the curtains of the show and I saw everything that I never saw before. Change of scene, the large number of people needed to actually run the entire show and the incredible need of communication between the entire crew. One thing I really enjoyed was hearing the sound of laughter coming from the kids of the primary  school due to the jokes in the play. 

On the thursday and friday we had the evening performances for all the parents. The pressure was even higher as we knew that our family members and friends where there listening to us and we all wanted to make a good impression on them. Saturday afternoon was instead the final performance. The end of a great show that took a lot of our effort and time to prepare. The end was amazing as we all got to go on stage and get all the appreciation of the spectators. We all received a rose as congratulation and then we started to play again to make a better atmosphere when all the people were leaving. When everyone left we had a great time celebrating together as a united group and we had to clean up everything left over from the show. When stage, decoration, chairs and instrument got taken away we all left, leaving the show behind us but in out memories.

I found out that playing in a band is a very nice experience as you get to know more people, you have to learn how to work in a group and how to cooperate with a big number of people playing different notes at the same time. It has been a challenging experience but it was definitely worth it to improve playing skills and to offer help to the community of the school.  

 It took us almost 3 months to prepare for all of this but after the different shows I realized that everything was definitely worth it. I came to understand my strength and weaknesses while playing. In fact, playing alone and with a group of people completely changes your frame of reference. When you are alone you only concentrate on what you are doing, when in a group your part seems to somehow end up being in the background. In reality it is in the foreground but accompanied by all the rest of the group. I have to admit that playing with a group is very hard and I feel more confident playing by myself as I can concentrate only on what I am doing and not also on what everyone else is doing. This might be a limitation of mine, but that is how I have felt about it.

The picture shows the view of the stage I had from my position in the band (playing the piano).