Momma and Dad took me to see Wicked today as part of my birthday gift. I’ve been waiting two months to go, and the show was well worth the wait.

I did a little musical dinner theatre in high school, singing, dancing, and generally hamming it up on stage. Since then, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to perform for a living. Technically that’s exactly what I do: have you ever heard the old chestnut that teaching is one quarter knowledge and three quarters dramatic presentation? It’s true. I watch a major show like Wicked and think about the actors, and I wonder if they are living the lives they dreamt for themselves, touring with a musical and singing their hearts out. I hope so.

I play piano, and I sing, but doing both in public terrifies me. There was an incident at a music festival when I was about eleven that ruined me for playing piano on stage. Sometimes, I like to fantasize about performing music for an audience, and today I’m on that train of thought again. The women who played Elphaba and Glinda were stunningly good singers, although Glinda’s character was very nasal and got on my nerves in places. I watched those women and thought about how it must feel to walk out onto that stage every night and Sunday afternoons and sing from the toenails.

Not many workdays finish with a standing ovation, do they?

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