The Music Technician Screws Up

Friday night at 6:00, I went to the church to help out with our Confirmation class's performance of the Live Stations of the Cross. A prayer would be read in the pitch black church, and then a spot light would come on, showing a freeze-frame scene of one of the stations of the cross. Then, in the 45 seconds of setting up before the next reading, music would be playing (Gregorian chants, actually.) I was the music technician. (Woo hoo! I don't have to act!)

The show started at 8:00. We had plenty of time for rehearsal and costuming. During the rehearsal, I set up in the choir loft with the CD player. I did a pretty good job with my fade-in-fade-out techniques, though a few times I came in at the wrong time because one of the readers was playing with their flashlight (one of my cues), or Mr. Paccia turned on or off the spot light in to help some one see(another cue of mine). But it went well.

Several minutes prior to the start of the show, people started coming into the choir loft! They weren't supposed to do that, and I had all my stuff set up there! I tried to gesture for them to go back down, but they just came up. One guy actually sat down next to me! I was freaking out because I did not want anyone watching me. Mrs. Downes then came up, thankfully!, and helped me move the stereo and such into the other half of the choir loft, where there is only one chair and no one was sitting. Whew!

It was pitch black in the church. I kept my fingers on the buttons and dials I had to use so I wouldn't get confused and push the wrong button. It went smoothly until just after the second or third stations. When the spot light went out, I was supposed play the music. I pressed 'play', but what came out was not Gregorian chants! It was some sort of jazz! I paused it as quickly as I could, and, panicked, felt around wildly for the emergency flashlight! It's kind of amazing that I figured it out so quickly. I pressed the CD 1 button that I'd seen earlier because I knew (hoped!) that that was where the CD was. I practically tore out my hair as it took forever to switch CDs. My theory for what happened was that I hit one of the other CD buttons in the pitch black and it changed CDs, and that was what played when I pressed "play"! 

After it finished loading, I tentatively pressed play, and it worked! I was so relieved, though still really flustered. The cue came really quickly, and I was glad to fade it out and turn it off. My heart was still racing and I was slapping myself in the forehead repeatedly. The rest of the show went really smoothly, though (I kept the flashlight on- thank god for that flashlight!)

Mom said that she didn't hear me mess up, but I still needed a second opinion. Mrs. Downes said that she heard it, but was happy that I figured it out.

I think I still need a third opinion, though...Who else heard it? (yikes!) Perhaps I should call Kat. 

Mr. Paccia gave us a pep talk/lecture before hand about reverence and really taking part in the event. Fortunately, it wasn't half as bad as he said it should be. He told us to physically feel the anguish of Christ. 

Hmm...that's a bit extreme, no? Yet another case of improper use of adverbs. *rolls eyes*.