My Personal Soirée Crew Experience
Family. Hard work. Sacrifices. Fun. Unity. Ups and downs. Pride.
Those few words sum up the overall feeling and experience one feels as forming a part of this year’s crew during the St. Aloysius Soirée. Back in September, when Mr. Portanier had bustled into the school hall, giving us a brief introduction about what forming part of the crew entailed,
I could never have imagined to what extent his words rang true and that, during the following months, I would have been despairing and despising the thought of Soirée coming to an end.
It feels just like yesterday that we sat in the theatre, having promptly returned from the Christmas holidays, with Mr. Portanier telling us all that had needed to be done by February 6th. By that date, everything had to be absolutely perfect. He put forward the different teams in which everyone would have to divide themselves, for the efficient management of the show.
I chose to be in the sound team mainly out of curiosity, since I was not aware of the mechanisms of the sound system as much as I needed to. I decided to take the opportunity to learn something new. We started out as four people in the sound department and as days started passing by, the workload unfortunately, steadily increased. Eventually more and more people joined, which eventually formed the foundations of an excellent team.
Two weeks passed by and the crew could not have been any better. Everyone had fallen under a particular department that needed working on, producing an efficient basis for the management of the beloved show. Almost every day was spent at the theatre, the same theatre that eventually, became our home, for a month or so. The rehearsals, sound checks and testing, involved us having to stay there for hours on end. This was the routine almost every day, breaks included, especially during the last two weeks, prior to the show.
As time passed and with only a few days left, there were still a mass of things to be done. Panic was evident on the faces of most people, myself included. Mr. Portanier himself was excessively worried because some things weren’t up to his standard of perfect. He repeated that we were working hard as hard as we possibly could, but that our team lacked a special something - a sense of unity that would make our crew really stand out. This unity, I personally think, came about at the very end of the four days of Soirée.
Days proceeded, and in the last technical rehearsal, overall, rehearsals we went splendidly for some but disastrously for others. I can only speak from my team’s perspective of course. We were in charge of the wireless microphones which proved to be a really difficult job since we were just a team of five people and had to cope with about 30 microphones, at a time, which had to be in very specific ways. If anything went wrong in our department, the show would prove to be a disaster. So when Friday 6th, the night of the first show bared its teeth, we were all full of determination to do well, but terrified since we weren’t quite aware of how prepared we had had to be.
The show proceeded and everything was overall, going well. However, small mistakes could be easily noted, by the audience, which would reduce the standard of the performances. The show unfortunately, hit rock bottom when the Gospel Choir came on. There was a large amount of disheartening feedback which was being produced by a factor that absolutely no one was aware of at the time. As the Gospel Choir came to an end, the morale and mood of the show’s cast and crew was very low. But the worst was still to come. During the musical, as
Princess Jasmine was about to sing a solo, nothing could be heard. There was no sound whatsoever. Panic and confusion dominated the crew. And whilst Jasmine tried to sing at the top of her voice, backstage all hell broke loose. Nobody could understand who or what was causing this because as Jasmine came off stage, we all checked her microphone and confirmed that nothing had gone wrong. Mistakes started popping up everywhere from then on, and by the end of the show there was almost no morale left. Everyone was angry and disappointed.
That night, my group stayed on with Mr. Portanier till quarter past midnight, trying to understand what had gone wrong. Finally we discovered the miscreant and everything made sense. The microphone worn by one of the soloists in the Gospel Choir had started to break from the inside which had produced all the feedback. More damage was caused as it was taken off, and the very same microphone, which was worn by Princess Jasmine, eventually proved to be absolutely useless. Depressed, we all went back home, afraid of what was waiting for us, in the following shows.
Saturday came along, and after a speech by Mr. Portanier before the show, the show started. Everyone was still determined of doing well but this time, we had physical proof of how much things could go wrong in a split second. As the show proceeded, it was becoming apparent how smoothly things were going. It was incredible how much everyone was working well together. This was what Mr. Portanier had been urging us to achieve; this was the special ingredient that we all needed and that night, turned out to be absolutely perfect. By the end of the night, everyone was proud, content and motivated. This had shown us that all we really needed was to focus and work hard. The two nights that followed were equally as good and we were all really proud of ourselves. That was the greatest achievement for us, as a crew. Mr. Portanier concluded by saying that he was proud of us too – for all our work and dedication.
Personally, Crew for me was something special. It meant being part of a large system which you can eventually call your second family. Each member you talk to, you work with, you help out - they become your brothers and sisters. The theatre becomes your second home by the last show and you end up really missing it. However, all the sacrifices that needed to be taken, all the dedication and hard work I saw in everyone, and despite the unfortunate bad luck that was beyond our control, we did in fact deliver, together with the cast, a great show, was for me the one thing I believe I had needed to learn. I could never have imagined that the end-product of something like this, could come to mean this much. I miss it and I can’t wait to participate in next year’s Soirée. To all the members of the cast and crew, I would like to give a huge thank you, for all for the wonderful experiences and the friendships I have made. My largest thank you however, goes to Mr. Portanier, Mr. Grech and their team of wonderful people, who taught us so much and really made all this possible.
Hopefully, I’ll see you all next year.
Enrico Zammit Lonardelli
