Grape Jelly, Chili Sauce, and the Theatre

Have you ever gone to a party and dined on meatballs (or miniature wieners) marinated in grape jelly and chili sauce? The flavors shouldn't go together. Grape jelly and chili sauce? On paper, that combination sounds like a whole lot of weird. But in the crockpot? In the crockpot, that combination is magic.

My friend (and coworker) Wes and I are kind of like grape jelly and chili sauce. On paper, we are very different:

1. I like fiction; Wes prefers nonfiction.

2. I'm terrible at dates; Wes knows all of the dates.

3. I am a fan of the Oxford comma; Wes does not approve of the Oxford comma.

That's just a sampling of our differences -- there are plenty of others in addition to those -- but for the purpose of this blog, a sampling is really all you need to understand that while Wes and I are very different people, we make the magic happen when our talents are combined.

Every year, Wes and I combine our theatrical talents to make the magic happen in our high school's annual holiday faculty play. I write the script (it always rhymes!) and Wes brings the masterpiece to life with his natural acting talent.

Today, Wes really brought the masterpiece to life! He sang... He danced... He traveled through time... It was a whirlwind of a production and the students seemed to enjoy themselves immensely! I cannot tell you how many times I was stopped in the hall by an upperclassman wondering if this year's performance would be the same as last year's. "Oh, gosh no!" I answered every time. "I wrote a new play with a new plot and new characters." To which one of the seniors replied, "You know, I wondered if you'd have to since Mr. Foster retired and he's not here to eat all of the eggs." (If you know, you know.)

Just a little while ago, I bumped into an eleventh-grader at the grocery store. He shared that his favorite part of the play was definitely seeing his social studies teacher take on the leading role, but there are so many behind-the-scenes components that went into making today's show a success.

My dear friend Heather of 8-Double-H-Bond fame spent the last two weeks creating life-sized lockers and larger-than-life-sized sugar plums. Like, Heather unearthed the glitter from her supply closet in order to really bring those sugar plums to life (and Heather does not unearth the glitter very often).

Despite being sick with what may or may not be the flu, Dr. Heather stepped up to be Brooke's understudy and spun around the stage with Bonnie while dressed as a present-day ghost. She wasn't supposed to have any speaking lines and she ended up with many!

Summer and Julianna, both first-year teachers at BHS and therefore new to the tradition of our faculty skit, volunteered their talent and traveled back through time to remind Wes of his long-ago (and recently lost) teaching ambition.

Rei played the saxophone! It was amazing! The kids clapped after every performance, astounded by his smooth, jazzy skills.

Niki learned how to play the mandolin because "mandolin" rhymes with "grin" and I wasn't willing to rewrite that line of the script!

Landon donned an orange mustache and imparted wisdom surrounding Tiananmen Square to his students.

Dawn took it upon herself to not only make Wes's prop desk look an awful lot like his real desk, but she also provided us with a life-size screech owl!

Tiff and Annie and Maryanne channeled their inner youth and pulled out zingers like "No cap?", "Sigma," "Aura Points," and "Six-Seven."

Tammy and Stacey and Sally wore purple eyeshadow that sparkled! Sally wasn't even supposed to be in the play, but Mary got sick!

My principal Beth, clad in heels and dressed for graduation, click-clacked her way all the way from the future to the present and (I think) might've scared herself a little bit when she set about startling Wes!

Oh, it was funny!

The entire experience was positively joy-inducing and the absolute BEST way to say adieu to our students before Christmas break.

Jimbo did film the festive affair and I believe Beth will be posting the production on social media at some point in the near future. Until then, you can enjoy this: