It's Raining Men,Part 1

Lesson Number One: It's hard to find enough boys.

It seems that it doesn't matter where you are, or what kind of theatre you're doing. It's hard to find enough boys.

As the summer of 2008 began, I had asked three male students at Five Towns to participate in "Godspell." Rudy Valme would play the role of Jesus, Kevin Story would play John/ Judas, and Chris Duffy would sing "All Good Gifts." But Godspell was written for five men. And we had absolutely no idea where we would get the other two.

That July 4th I was singing at the wedding of a former student. She had been in my first seventh grade class, which made me feel incredibly old. She told me that I'd be singing "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge with a high school buddy of her future husband. Then I felt old and snobby. "Should I practice backing off? Who is this kid?" I was willing to sing any song for her under any circumstances, but I was seriously concerned by the idea of singing a duet with a former high school show choir star. But the bride assured me that he was theatre major, and that she was pretty sure it would be fine.

I went to the rehearsal in Conneaut, Ohio kinda sorta prepared. And there, I met up with Andrew, who was told he would be singing with his buddy's fiance's former middle school choir director. He anticipated singing with a school marm, I anticipated singing with a hometown hero. And the rehearsal began.

Me: We should probably run this real quick before the rehearsal begins.

Andrew: Yeah. I mean, whatever.

Me: Which notes do you do at the end? The melody or the harmony?

Andrew: Whatever. I mean, I can do either.

Me: Well, I mean, I can do either, too.

*blank stare from both*

Me: (deciding I was going to need to be the teacher in this situation) OK, we'll do it as written. I'll do the melody.

Andrew: Sure. Whatever.

And then we started to sing.

Oh.

We're both... kind of... awesome. We have very similar voices that sound pretty great together. This was not what either of us expected.

And we spent the rest of the rehearsal and wedding with a very different attitude.

At some point between the rehearsal and the wedding, Ryan suggested I invite Andrew to join the cast of Godspell. It seemed like a pretty crazy idea. I knew he was a strong enough performer, but we had only just met him, and he lived in Chicago. The only way that would work is if he came to NYC and stayed with us for two weeks. Who in the world would be willing to stay with total strangers to do a show for no pay with a brand new company no one has ever heard of?

It turns out, Andrew was.

We might have spoken three times between the wedding and the night Ryan and I went to pick him up at the airport. I had to text him and ask what he was wearing (awkward) because I didn't remember what he looked like. I sent Jackie a text as we sat in the car:

At the airport waiting for Andrew. This is seriously happening.

Her response:

Stop. This is the beginning.

Ryan teased Andrew later that night. "You had to be just a little bit concerned that there wasn't going to be a car at the airport and this whole thing was a giant joke." He claimed he wasn't worried. But his parents were.

Since then, Andrew has become a Momentum Rep regular, as well as a close friend of our family. He was one of our most consistent crash couchers until he moved to New York, and even then he stayed with us for a few weeks until his lease started. We have often told the story of how we met at a wedding in Ohio, only to become close friends. And it is a great story.

But the truth is, it's only the first of a lot of crazy things that happened in that first production.

...to be continued...