I don't think I've ever been this amped with anticipation for a TV show before, but thinking about and watching previews for Fox's new show "Glee" fills me with such... well, glee.
I can't watch a promo and not smile. They always seem to air the "Glee" commercials during "American Idol", and while we always fast-forward through the commercials (thanks DVR!), if I ever spy a promo for the new show I have to rewind and watch. I even downloaded the extended promo (over 4 minutes long) and will watch it a few times while doing my cardio workouts at the gym. Andy called me a nerd, and that's totally right. The show's become more to me than getting to watch Lea Michele (the
beautiful and
amazingly talented star from
a certain Broadway musical that I love) on my TV on a weekly basis, although she was my main draw. But it's taken me back to my junior high (and part of high school) days when I was a musical theatre nerd.
In junior high, I was in our school's small choir that every spring went to this annual competition in Santa Maria that some school's from the GSACS (Golden State Association of Christian Schools) participated in. We'd compete in the fine arts (like music and drama) and also in academic subjects. I think in 4th grade I won in the writing category, and from 7th-9th grade I won the spelling competition -- fun times, those were. Anyways, our choir was awesome back in junior high, I remember our choir won when I was in 7th grade. That same year I was also in the boys ensemble. It was 5 of us, and I was the #2 tenor (#1 being the choir director's son) and my voice was able to reach those high notes. We sang "How Majestic Is Your Name" (I think I can still remember the words), and we won 1st place too. The readers theatre group I was in also won, so it was good times for our school. I didn't do sports, so this provided the thrill of competition for me.
Later in the spring, we also had a concert at the school, which was a much less formal affair than the earlier competition (where we had to dress up - guys in ties, etc). But the spring concert was fun. We sang this song our director wrote called "Lazy Summer Days", where we got to wear t-shirts and sunglasses and I wore a hat backwards for probably the first time in my life - it even had light choreography too. I miss those days so much now...
Anyways, like Lea Michele's character says in the "Glee" promo - "Being a part of something special makes you special, right?" And her question resonates with me, because being in choir and drama gave me that rush and it was nice to not feel so anonymous and boring but to be part of a special team - it was exciting. Singing, acting, choreography... I need to get back into that.
