DEAR OL' AF HIGH

My heart goes out to the American Fork High School Marching Band and Color Guard tonight. Last night after an incredible competition and a "clean sweep" for 1st place they were faced with a tragedy on their way home. A bus driver passed out and lost control of a bus leaving one of the teacher's to try and take control. Although her actions may have saved the lives of many students, her life was lost in the accident. There were several injured and many taken to the hospital for precautions but most are home safe.
After each competition the band circles together and sings "Friends". I remember it being part of the tradition and meaning so much to me. Tonight, this is dedicated to the band, color guard, and most of all, Heather. Although there is so much work that goes into being a member of that marching band and at times the last thing I ever wanted to hear was the voice of one of the instructors telling us to keep going or to do it "just one more time" I also never felt so much love, compassion, and heart from our instructors, director, and even our band mom and dads. Although this isn't my direct loss, I feel so deeply for everyone there. Please know you are in so many people's thoughts and prayers.

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
I can't believe the hopes He's granted
Means a chapter of your life is through

But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

And with the faith and love God's given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you live in
Is the strength that now you show

We'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

To live as friends

Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

No a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

Time for school again!!

I have VERY MUCH enjoyed the past 8 months without school. I have loved the time, the sleep, the normal schedule, the ability to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, it has been FABULOUS! I have been able to get involved the the groups that I volunteer for, spend time with friends, stay up late, sleep in, work normal hours, and read for fun!! It has been WONDERFUL!! I thought I would wait until January to begin a master's program but I guess I just couldn't wait that long. I applied and have been accepted into a master's program at National University in La Jolla, California. I am going to be getting my degree in Public Admin in Non Profit studies and can't wait!! I'm nervous to begin and the flashbacks of the insanity have come full force, but I can't wait forever! In order to run a non-profit, I have to have it - the sooner, the better. Depending on how long it takes me to do my thesis I can be done in as little as 14 months but we shall see if I can do it. I would love to be done by December 2010. Wish me luck!!

Anyone up for a celebration in Cali when I'm done???

INNOCENCE SOLD

He put her out on the street tonight
Too scared and trained to even fight
He forces her to be raped for a price
She’s so confused, this Pimp appeared nice

He stripped her of her hopes and dreams
Thought he could exchange it for a new pair of jeans
At 13 she was trying to find her own niche
But now can only hope to become his Bottom Bitch

She is tortured and raped, no sense of control
Her innocent life is no longer whole
She needs a place to run and hide
Somewhere to fix what’s been broken inside

With nowhere to go she stays where she’s at
With a master manipulator who beats her with a bat
She’s told she deserves it; he reminds her she’s his
A piece of property on his “for sale” list

This doesn’t happen far from here
It’s not a foreign country’s issue to bear
Even if you close your eyes
The innocence of this little girl still dies

Since you’re home and safe tonight
Please kneel down and pray that she’ll be alright
For tomorrow she’ll be back on the street
Sold to a stranger, a price they will meet


By Jessica Blanco
Visit: brandedphx.com

9 YEARS IN THE MAKING!

I have now lived in Arizona for NINE years!! Can you believe it? I can't! The drive down here was the first of many adventures - none of which I could have imagined when I left Utah. I thought growing up was a challenge in a world that I didn't understand but then I learned that growing up didn't happen until after 18 years old and that the world that I didn't understand only expanded. I was lucky to leave home with some of my best friends with me. Taylor and Derek moved here with me and I couldn't have done it without them. They made it easy! They made it hard when they decided to move back to Utah and I had to decide if I was going with them, or if I was staying behind - OBVIOUSLY, I stayed behind. I had many moments questioning my decision but it was the right one. I still miss having them here!!
I can't believe what the past years have brought me. I have never been happier, more sad, more scared, more satisfied, more achieved, more devastated, more everything!
I'm so thankful that I made the choice to move here after high school. I can't imagine my life any other way!

Take a walk down MY memory lane!
(Pictures are in no paticular order - just how the downloaded - but they are some of my most favoritest moments)

Arizona maybe a desert but it's a beautiful one! I found a spot that has brought me peace and serenity. I used to come to this spot and read, pray, cry, and even a time or two it has provided me a very nice sleepful rest. I have celebrated life here. I have cried about life here. It's a very special spot!

Call me an old lady but one of my favorite things to do here is go to the casino and play BINGO! And thanks to Joyce - we survived a small moment of unemployment by winning BINGO! (I don't recommend gambling of any kind when you don't have a job - we were just lucky - not responsible!)


These are MY boys!! I will love them more than any other woman can ever possibly love them. I will always owe it to them for being my guiding light when I wanted and needed to leave Utah. Without Taylor, Derek, and Steve, I don't know where I would be!


For the years that I worked at the massage school these moments were my favorite! We used to hold our own therapy sessions at IHOP where we solved the world's problems, predicted the future, talked each other out of bad ideas, gave each other hope and love and enough umph to go back to work the next day! We also owe these times to Big John who was our server at IHOP every time and was our sounding board when we needed one.



True friends! Courtney and Joyce have made me laugh until I have cried, and have made laugh when I have been crying. They help me survive! Courtney started out as my instructor at massage school, my boss when I worked there, a dear friend as time went on, a roommate a little bit later, and a best friend after that. People wonder how I survived living with her - I wonder how I would have survived without living with her! Joyce and I were just destined to be friends. We understand each other when no one else does, we don't need to make excuses for who we are, and she has been one of my biggest life supporters in everything that I have done and do. She gets me. What would I do without them??


This is my turtle, Goose. He is now 2 years old. He has a personality all his own but I love him!


OH MY LACY! I can't imagine my life without her! I met her when she was my boss at the massage school - little did I know that she was going to be my best friend! People say that no matter where you live you find new friends that "you can't imagine your life without" - but really, I was brought here so I could have Lacy. JLCC can't be done without her!

If you can't tell by the picture - we are studying! Kelly is the only reason I made it through my bachelors degree. She wouldn't let me quit even when I wanted to. Proof once again that I wouldn't have been able to survive anywhere else! Kelly was here, so I had to be.

Carla and Rachael were able to come and visit me last year. We had SOOOO much fun! Even though we all live in different places in the country, we are lucky enough to have had this time together!

GRADUATION! Need I say more??

Getting Geared up for Branded Ride

As most of you know I'm involved with a group called 'branded' (visit: www.brandedphx.com) and on Saturday we are having our FIRST annual motorcycle ride. We are working to stop child prostitution right here in Phoenix and are partnering with other cities in the country who are trying to combat the same problem. I could leave you all the stories, statistics, quotes, etc right here but then you would go visit our site so please, please, please go check it out! We don't know how many people we are going to have on Saturday but we are praying for LOTS! The money is so needed right now. It is used to feed, clothe, rehabilitate, and rescue these underage children who have been FORCED into prostitution. People think that those who are doing the unthinkable, the inhumane, are doing it because they want to, because they don't WANT to get out, and it's not true. The average age of entry into forced prostitution is 13 years old...THIRTEEN. We need to help, we need to rescue, we need to educate, we need to make it STOP! Go to the website to read more or feel free to ask me questions! The more we know the more we can help!
PLEASE VISIT BRANDEDPHX.COM
Pray for the vice squads that are trying to protect. Pray for the girls that are out on the street tonight. Pray that those who know about the ride on Saturday will come and that they will spread the word so we can raise money and awareness.
THANK YOU!

A DAY AT WORK

I am LOVING my new job for many, many reasons but one of the main ones is that it is so much fun! The people who I work with are so great and there is always something to laugh about and something to do...and they do it BIG!
So we had a Spring Fling today and it was a BLAST! I can't wait till we get the pictures so I can actually put them on here but for now I will tell you that our owner gave away $20,000 today during our activities and I won $1000...NOT bad!! We had two contests that were worth a prize of $2000 each. One of them we had to decorate 12 eggs and the best set own. Then we had a contest of the best hat (I only did the eggs but the hats were really really cool!) The people at work talked and talked about this festival and they had secrets about their projects and teams and it went on and on. I decided to join the competition and see what happens...here are pictures of my project.




And believe it or not...I WON 2nd PLACE! I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! I couldn't even believe it! In addition to winning 2nd place in the egg contest my team won 2/4 of the games that we played. It was so awesome!!

Our owner is an incredibly generous person who cares greatly about us. I'm very lucky to have been given an opportunity to work in this environment.

Now...we are getting geared up for our SUMMER EXTRAVAGANZA in Santa Barbara California!!

NO DAY BUT TODAY...

I WENT TO RENT!!!! Oh how I love this musical. My boyfriend surprised me with tickets a couple of days ago and it MADE MY DAY! I hold Rent very near and dear to my heart for many, many reasons so I just about cried when I found out I really could go.
I learned and knew this soundtrack by heart before I ever saw the play. I listened to it, I learned it, I read about it, and I waited for the opportunity to see it. The excitement that I had when I first saw it was the same that I had this time, if not more...and I've now seen it 4 times on stage and it only gets better! I don't know if the understanding of it is more clear, the meaning is more personal, or if it just really gets better, but no matter what, it is worth it every single time I have seen it.
We bought the DVD of their final performance on Broadway so we don't have to just watch the movie, we can watch the production. I was VERY excited!! I'm sad that this is their final tour...although we all know that it will return...I will be there again.




'

This play alone is amazing and is created in the eyes of an incredible man who never made it to see his own production. I have copied the history of Rent from their official website: siteforrent.com and hope that you take the time to read it. This play is truly about life, death, and the experiences in between that we ALL can relate to. I don't care if you were never homeless, you understand the feeling of not knowing where to go next. I don't care if you don't have AIDS, you understand the fear of illness and you have experienced the sadness of losing one you love. You have fallen in love and it has walked away from you. You have friends who you wouldn't have been able to survive without who are still there when you need them no matter what. Experiences don't have to be exact for you to appreciate someone else's life and to be able to relate to their feelings of sadness and hope.
This is Life brought to Life.

"The evolution of Rent is not a simple one. It took seven long and difficult years to take the show from its initial concept to its first public performance. The story of Rent is filled with highs and lows of the most epic proportions. For every burst of applause and prestigious award, there is the reminder that its creator is not here to share in its glory. In fact, it was only one week before Rent's first preview that Jonathan Larson felt the first thump of the aortic aneurysm that would take him away. Director Michael Greif and the cast were rehearsing "What You Own" - the rousing second act show-stopper about dying at the end of the millennium - when Jonathan collapsed and asked for an ambulance. He later told friends that he couldn't believe that the last burst of music he would hear might be his own song about dying.

An ambulance took Jonathan to the hospital, and he was diagnosed with food poisoning. A few days later, after another incident, doctors at a second hospital said he had the flu. On January 25, 1996, Jonathan - weary but excited - went to the final dress rehearsal of Rent at New York Theatre Workshop. By the end of the show, Jonathan was surrounded by friends and supporters shouting in approval and stamping their feet. After the ovations subsided, he was interviewed by a reporter from The New York Times. The reporter told Jonathan off the record that Rent was an amazing achievement, destined for success. Then he went home, put on some tea, and died. His roommate found him on the floor of the kitchen, beside his coat. Jonathan Larson was 35 years old.

You know what happened to the play next - the show has become one of the biggest things ever on Broadway. It's become the sort of thing a playwright dreams about in the middle of the night, and in the morning is embarrassed at how wild he's let his fantasies run. Rent - Jon's first produced show - is like an athlete who has won the Rookie of the year award, an Olympic gold medal, the World Series, and the Most Valuable Player Award, all in the same season. It has collected the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, The Obie Award, the Tony Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Rent was on the cover of Newsweek. Time called it a "breakthrough," The New York Times "an exhilarating landmark." At the 1996 Democratic National Convention, the cast of Rent sang "Seasons of Love." Movie and television stars have returned again and again, and afterwards, at the Nederlander Theater, they've gone backstage to sign a long brick wall - Mel Gibson and Janet Jackson and Jodie Foster --forwarding their best wishes and congratulations to Jonathan and the cast. People in the show say they recognize the same audience members coming back to the Nederlander ten, fifteen times. Over the past few years, Rent has played to cheering fans throughout North America. In fact, it has become a global phenomenon, packing houses in England, Japan, Australia, Germany and countless other countries. If a young playwright told you this was a fantasy of his, you'd smile at his ambition, and he'd walk away embarrassed. But here it is true.

There would be no Rent, of course, without Jonathan Larson. However, there are other voices too, artists and producers and actors who helped shape Rent and gave it sets and lights, flesh and bones. If you've ever wanted the inside scoop on Rent, you've come to the right site. Here's how it happened:

In the beginning, there was Billy Aronson, a Yale trained playwright who loved opera and had an idea: Billy wanted to write a musical updating of La Boheme. He wanted the show to be about people like himself - struggling to make art under lousy conditions. Some theatrical acquaintances suggested he work with Jonathan. In 1989, they met and swapped ideas. Jon came up with the title: Rent. He didn't like Billy's proposed Upper West Side setting; Jon lived a bohemian life downtown. He rented a scruffy loft that had a bathtub in the kitchen. For a while, he and his roommates kept an illegal, wood-burning stove. He dated a dancer for four years who sometimes left him for other men and finally left him for another woman. Jon wanted to write about his experience. In 1991, he called Billy and asked if he could make Rent his own, and Billy agreed.

New York Theatre Workshop put on a reading of Rent in the spring of 1993. Some thought it was simply ragged, but others were in love with the material, no matter its flaws. A young producer named Jeffrey Seller, who had met Jonathan several years earlier, felt the time was right to produce a musical. He had stayed in touch with Jon, because he was convinced that one day, "Jon was going to write a brilliant musical." When Jeffrey first saw the show, he felt the play was baggy, a collage with no narrative shape. "There were great songs," Jeffery remembers, "but there were endless songs." Jeffrey was still interested - as long as Jon found a story as compelling as the music.

Jon sent a letter to Stephen Sondheim, his mentor, asking for advice and assistance. The older composer responded by encouraging Jonathan to apply for a Richard Rodgers foundation grant. Jonathan eventually won $45,000 to support a workshop production of Rent.

What they needed now was a director. Jim Nicola, artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop, immediately suggested Michael Greif, a young New York director who had recently become artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. Greif listened to a tape of Rent on a Walkman flying from California to New York. The script seemed shaggy. "What impressed me," he remembers, "was its youth and enthusiasm, and that it was a musical about contemporary life. Jon was writing about some people I felt I knew, that I sort of loved, or had loved in my life." What Jim wanted in a director was a counterweight to Jon's eternally positive outlook, which had allowed him to treat dark subjects like AIDS, homelessness, and drug addiction with optimism. Michael was hard-nosed and cool-headed. He met with Jim and Jonathan in January of 1994, and the three set to work on bringing the script to the level of the music. "It was very fragile material at the time," Jim recalls. "And it was so easy for it to become sentimental or hokey. I felt Michael had the right sort of dryness and sharpness to balance Jonathan's writing."

Jim saw that his instincts were right when the three got down to shaping the script in Jon's loft. They met for a week in the middle of the spring, preparing for the workshop scheduled for November. They went over the script scene by scene, moment by moment. Immediately, the dynamic between Jonathan and Michael slipped into a productive yin and yang. Michael was afraid there was something self-congratulatory about the young bohemian heroes of the show; so Jon toned down the lyrics of "La Vie Bohème." Michael fretted about the homeless characters - that they not simply serve as East Village window dressing, as moral scarecrows where Mark and Roger could drape their good social conscience; so Jonathan wrote the new song, "On the Street," where a homeless woman gives Mark a stern telling off. Most importantly, Michael had reservations about the message of the show, the "No Day But Today" cheerfulness of the life support meetings. Michael had friends with HIV, just as Jon did, and they were not cheerful about it. Jon added the scene of Gordon questioning the life support credo, saying he regretted his low T-cell count. And Jon himself kept Michael from becoming too hard-nosed and cool-headed. Anthony Rapp, who originated the role of Mark, remembers, "what Jon gave Michael was some of his hope and heart and generosity of spirit. And what I think Michael gave Jon was some edge and realism and complexity, and making sure things didn't all resolve nicely and prettily. It was a good marriage."

That summer, Michael and Jon talked plot. One large problem, they agreed was the relationship between Maureen and Mark; in these drafts, a major plot point was Mark winning Maureen back. Michael didn't like it. "My position was, if they're gonna be lesbians, let them be lesbians. Don't make them about going-back-to-their-man." In October, Michael worked out the "performance vocabulary" of Rent. For budgetary reasons - and also because it suited the nature of the characters - the NYTW decided to have minimal props. Michael suggested the three "Frankenstein" tables, which could be used to serve multiple functions in the show. He pushed for a multiracial cast. Because it was rock, Michael played around with microphones, with actors singing directly to the seats: "We were very anxious to take advantage of the fact that it would be as much a concert as it was a play."

For all of its flaws, the November workshop was a tremendous success. It ran two weeks with the audience growing larger and more enthusiastic each night; by the last week it was sold out. Anthony Rapp, remembers the excitement: "I kept telling people it was going to be an event. We knew it needed work. But people I trust and respect - friends and collaborators - would come down and be knocked out by it.

Jim Nicola thought it needed work, too. But the responses he was getting from his friends were just what Anthony was hearing. "There was a lot of passion - again, the most striking thing was the intensity of opinion about it. There was a large segment of people whose tastes I trusted who just loved it, and didn't care what the problems were. I felt even more convinced that there was really something strong here." Jim found himself moving towards an exciting, scary, stirring decision: "Rent was the kind of show to bet the company on."

During the workshop's second week, Jeffrey Seller returned to East Fourth Street. This time, he brought his business partner, Kevin McCollum. Sitting down in the front row, seeing the three tables, remembering the plotless show he'd seen a year earlier, Jeffrey had time for a crisis of confidence. He turned to Kevin before the show and warned him, "this is either gonna be absolutely brilliant or it's going to be a mess." At intermission, Kevin nudged Jeffrey and said, "I'm loving this. Get out the checkbook."

A few nights later, they brought a business associate named Allan S. Gordon to the NYTW. The three had worked together previously on the national tour of "The Real Live Brady Bunch." Allan was equally enthusiastic - like Jeffrey and Kevin, he was overpowered by the music. That night, the three decided to join forces with New York Theater Workshop to bring the show to fruition.

After the holidays, Jim, Michael and Jonathan sat down again in Jim's office. Jim had thought it over, and talked to NYTW's board members. The Workshop decided to stage a full production of Rent the following year with the help of Seller, McCollum and Gordon, who would get the commercial rights in return. The budget would be $250,000 - twice the cost of anything NYTW had ever mounted.

They spoke about what needed fixing. The show had no single story, no primary narrator - in the November workshop, all the characters told the story; when they had something to say, they turned around and said it right to the audience. And the characters themselves, especially Maureen and Joanne, needed refinement. Jim gave Jon a task: Could he boil the plot down to a single sentence? The sentences Jon first turned in were impossibly long, crammed full of clauses, parentheses and second thoughts. But as Jim anticipated, as the sentences came into focus, so did the play.

Jim decided to hire a dramaturg to work with Jonathan. Dramaturgs work with playwrights as critics, advisers and editors. Jon did a lot of interviews before meeting Lynn Thompson. Lynn seemed to be on Jon's wavelength, and they hit it off right away. She was able to speak in a voice that sparked Jon's enthusiasm. Jim put the two on a schedule; Jon would deliver a revised draft by summer's end. Rent was to begin rehearsals in the fall.

Jon had found another strong collaborator. Lynn suggested he work up biographies of the characters, that he write a version of Rent told through each person's eyes. Her belief was that once Jon understood the story completely, once he really had the characters under his belt, the rewriting of the play would come in a simple burst. They worked through the summer, discovering a structure for Rent.

By October Jon had a new draft; he was confident his six years of work were over. Actors read the script aloud to everyone. Jim and Michael were pleased with many of the changes, but they knew they weren't out of the woods. The characters were sharper, but Jon had done some structural fiddling, turning much of the show into flashback. The first act began with Angel's funeral and Mark wondering, "How did we get here?," with the rest of the story catching up from there. No one was comfortable with this except the playwright himself. The Maureen-Joanne relationship was finally working, but their second act duet was by all accounts miserable. "One of the worst songs ever written," Michael remembers with a laugh. "The song was a straight out cat fight, the lovers sniping at each other, Maureen telling Joanne, 'You're the hepatitis in my clam.'"

Jeffrey was also concerned. The show was supposed to go into rehearsals in six weeks and Rent didn't feel ready to him. "On the one hand, the new script made a huge, wonderful leap from the workshop - a gigantic creative stride - but it wasn't there yet. Now it's late October and we're in casting. And the show starts rehearsing in December." Jeffrey dashed off some quick, blunt notes on what he felt needed to be changed in Rent before the production could move ahead.

Jeffrey's notes were intended for Jim and Michael, but somehow Jon got a hold of them. What the notes called for was another rewrite. Jon didn't want to do any more writing. "There was real terror the production wouldn't happen," Michael remembers. "It was a tense few days. Jon was very upset and very frustrated. But we all wanted this show to be as strong as it could be." Jon turned to Sondheim one last time, and Sondheim reminded him of a key proposition: theater is collaborative. Part of Jon's job was to take into account what his collaborators felt. So Jon signed on.

Michael wanted a simplified structure, with a clearer emotional division between the two acts: "The first act should be much more the celebration, and the second act should reflect the ramifications and sorrows surrounding these lives." Jon finally quit his job at the Moondance Diner. His friend Eddie Rosenstein remembers, "After he left the diner, and he announced that he was a full-time professional musical playwright, his spirits soared. That's all anybody wants to do in life, isn't it? A chance to do what they do."

During Jon's rewrites the show moved into casting. Michael wanted a youthful, sexy cast. He and Jon leaned toward young performers who seemed to have some connection with their characters, whose spirit could add dimensions to the work. The cast seemed to invigorate Jon. "He was really inspired by this company," Michael says. "We still needed the Joanne-Maureen song. And Jon really wisely said, 'let me just sit with these actors, and let me bring you something.' And then what he brings me is 'Take Me or Leave Me,' and I'm totally thrilled out of my mind."

In December, with casting done and rehearsals about to begin, Jon handed in the final version of Rent. Jon had worked a succession of 20 hour days. "He had completely cleaned up the narrative," Jeffrey says, remembering everyone's excitement with the last creative step. And Jon finally delivered to Jim his one-sentence summary of what story Rent told: "Rent is about a community celebrating life, in the face of death and AIDS, at the turn of the century."

From December on, it was a quick sprint to the show you've seen. There were a lot of what Jon called "programming changes": shifting songs from one position to another, seeing where they fit best. In January, Jim watched a rehearsal with a group of NYTW board members, and the emotional response to RENT was extraordinary. "It continued to get even tighter and better through rehearsals," Daphne Rubin-Vega, the original Mimi, remembers. The New York Times got wind that a rock musical based on La Bohème was going to premiere on the 100th anniversary of the original La Bohème. No one had known this; it was a fluke. The night of the final dress rehearsal, Jon was sick with a sore chest and a fever. Still, he took a taxi to Fourth Street, watched the show, and sat for his interview with the Times. The last thing Michael and Jim remember saying to him was to take it easy and sleep well. Jon died an hour later.

After Jon's death, there were a few revisions. Lynn, Jim and Michael and musical director/arranger Tim Weil (who would take charge of the show's musical elements after Jonathan died) would meet and attempt to decide what changes Jonathan would have approved. When the show premiered, they knew they had something special on their hands. Jon's death added an explosive, powerful element to the cast's understanding of the play. "The company had already come together so well, but the event of Jon dying just brought us together that much more strongly," Daphne remembers. "It let us remember that the bottom line is really about what you do with this experience, because tomorrow isn't promised you. There was no more powerful way of receiving that message than from someone who was completely healthy and died. Someone whose life was just beginning"

The day of Jon's death, no one at the Workshop was quite sure what to do. The first performance was scheduled for that evening. Jim Nicola's first inclination was to cancel, but he knew they needed to do something for Jonathan's memory. The first act, in particular, involved a lot of tricky dancing and jumping on tables. It hadn't been completely rehearsed, and he was afraid there would be injuries. That evening, New York Theatre workshop was filled to capacity with people Jon had loved - friends, family and colleagues. Jim decided on a sing-through - no movement, just songs. Throughout the first act, the cast was able to hold their seats. But very slowly, they began to rise. They acted, they danced. "It was incredible and terrible," Anthony remembers. "It was like we had to do it. We were all sobbing and crying." The lighting people made their way to the lighting booth; the sound manager began to pick up his cues. "They couldn't contain themselves," Eddie remembers.

"The audience was reaching out to the cast. They were crying and cheering. By the second act, it was no longer contained. It was the full show run full-out. If emotion could have become a physical force, the roof would have blown off, the weather would have changed." The second act ended. There was a huge ovation, the cast slowly left the stage, and the audience stayed in the theater. No one was sure what to do. The cast returned and sat down in the front row. Finally, a single voice called from the audience, "Thank you, Jonathan Larson," which brought the evening's loudest, final burst of applause.