I'm sure that you've read Jordan's and Thomas' on their final wrap up on their careers as a Valley mime, but here's one more. A different point of view I would like to ad. For three years (that's six shows in mime talk) I've been graced to be a part of the Baker's Dozen Mime Tech Crew, not only just a part of it, but the Sound Director. This post is not going to be full of emotions, those all calmed down sometime the Friday or Saturday after the show. I wasn't kidnapped and thrown into the back of a car, mine was less eventful. I was in the tech shop just cleaning away when Liz Bloomburg came in and told me to show up on Monday at 3:00. I did, I was totally lost. There were all these rowdy looking people sitting there talking about Pirates and how much paint we were going to need to get and also to see what we could dig up in the dungeon (pre-borstad cleaning it out era). Now I'm down in the dungeon hanging from rafters looking for something that could possible resemble a pirate wheel. All of them were seniors except for some people that I sorta knew at the time, Emily Dengle, Caitlin Ho, and then there was myself. I didn't know any of these people. Then later that day, Steve-o shows up and grabs Emily and myself and starts talking to us about looping tapes in the green room. We're both sitting there, only having met in freshman IHSSA group mime. Then she's called away by Cam. Great. Flash forward one week. I'm up in the lighting booth for the first time with a headset strapped to my head, a giant board in front of me filled with all sorts of dials and switches listening to Cam say 'Go Sound' and Henderson telling me to shut the hell up and stop singing. Before I know it, my first mime show is over. I really wanted to move from the booth to being on stage. So I tried out and didn't make it. And I'm glad. I love my job and what I get to experience for four short weeks out of the year. I get to hang out with the some of the goofiest fucking people I know and help produce a show that hundreds of people are going to see and be screaming for. I've found two of the people that I shall forever remain close to. Had someone told me that I would love these people and do anything for them my sophomore year, I would have thought they were lying. Turns out they were right. These guys (mimes and techies) became my first family. I would do anything for them. Three years flew by fast. After the seniors left, the rest of my friends became in charge like I was. We were all think 'WTF! How are we going to do this. We don't know what the hell we're doing.' But somehow, we came together and did it. We ran four shows together and worked hard to give the mimes a set and a great show to go with it. I'm sitting 60 feet away from the stage watching my friends grow up these past three years. Talking to Emily and Kyle of the headsets and watching skit after skit unfold before my eyes. I may not be the one that is wearing the white makeup and running around in slippers and tights, but I'm a part of it none the less. Coming together for those few short weeks, means more to me than anything else in the world. I'm glad it's all done, I know that we're leaving it all in good hands. When I graduate, I'm leaving more than just brick on the wall, I'm leaving a part of me behind.
...Go sound...
~Until Then
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