The Three Trees, aka Absalomina
If you aren't already familiar with the 3 Trees story, here is a link to a short version.
http://ruthann1.com/ThreeTrees.htmSince I was playing the piano and there to practice every day, Mr. C was allowed to take part with the Princess, Dervish, and Val. Of course there were other kids too, but they were not nearly as important.
"Ahhhh, what a day to be a tree!" Young Dervish started the whole play off with rapturous exclamations of how wonderful it was to be a tree in the forest. He and "Chester" were adorable together.
The girls' solos were beautiful, and you would hardly have suspected the days of feuding that led up to their angelic little voices soaring above the orchestra.
Ah yes, we had a live orchestra. We'll come back to that in a moment. There was one teeny little phrase where Val disregarded the identical advice her mother and I had separately given to her, and it didn't sound like it worked out too well for her. Fortunately I am a big enough person that I didn't feel at all smug. (Ha - we all know better than that one, don't we?) But I am pleased to report that the second and third times she sang the tricky part, she did what we suggested and sounded lovely.
And Mr. C, aka The Woodcutter's Assistant, executed his part with flair, but thankfully minus the overacted hunk of ham he had started rehearsals with. Scene-stealing, ad libbing jokes over the lines of established characters... In the end he integrated himself seamlessly into the ensemble cast.
So the orchestra. The strings hadn't been able to make any practices at all, though I had practiced Thursday evening with the 2 guitars and 1 banjo. Oh, and the song where I played the tuba went great! No clue how the recording picked up the instruments, but live it was fantastic. Pizzicato strings, rousing banjo, and oom pah pahs.
When I practiced with the guitars, one of the songs they were supposed to play the second verse by themselves, as the only accompaniment for the soloist. It had been a hard page turn for me there, so I was glad to let them have it. And, since I wouldn't need those two pages anymore, I taped them together to make it easier to turn the page.
Not until I was playing the song did I really start having misgivings about whether or not I should have taped the pages together? What if the guitars forgot? No, no, they won't forget.
Just at the right time I paused to let them take over. Silence.
No way to untape it - I had used sturdy packing tape, having lots of that on hand just now. In for a penny, in for a pound. I plunged on by memory, not perfectly but not disgracefully, either. How grateful I was at that moment for the days of rehearsal.
Right after that song, it was time to take up the offering. I relaxed. This was going to be easy! The strings and guitars and everybody were going to play "Let All Things Now Living" (tune from "The Ash Grove"), while I just played a few arpeggios on the piano as a backdrop. I had even had a chance to practice a bit. What could be simpler?
Were the strings starting first? No, they were looking at me. Fine, fine. I plunked out an intro. It was rather puzzling, but they didn't join me the way I expected. I could hear the guitars playing softly, but no one had the melody. Fine, I wasn't expecting that, but I suppose I can play the melody myself till someone else joins me.
And then there is the play's director standing beside me, putting several more pages of music up for me. Very calmly, "Whenever it's a good time for you, could you please modulate into the key of D?" (I was in F.)
We played it together the second time through, the strings and I.
Neaksis said she knew something had happened by the way we were all grinning at each other afterwards, but didn't really know what was wrong.
It was the climax of the play, where each of the 3 trees learns how their dream really did come true. And then, the most touching moment of all, where Val came forward carrying a cross, to explain that her dream had come true....that now she would always point the way to heaven.
Except that her cross, a good 8 or 10 feet tall, tangled in the manzanita branches of Mrs. Silva, a large and wise old tree. So I am playing beautiful and touching background music to wring tears from every eye, and there is Val, caught in the branches, grunt, push, pull, tug, thwackety thwackety thwackety.
Thus the play came to a very memorable end.
Epilogue
Then the children went and ate lots of goodies, had a hyper evening, and keeled over at 10:30 pm, still twitching.
However, when she denied saying it, I simply pointed out that I was well able to read her lips, even from the back of the room. 
