Pirates of Penzance!

It is my duty as a wife to brag about how lucky I am to be married to such a handsome, talented, and impressive person! Glenn Fox, Director! Has a nice ring huh?! Tonight is the finale of O’Neill High School performing the musical Pirates of Penzance. I just love looking at the program to see Glenn’s name under Director. Not only was Glenn the director, but also set designer, lighting designer, and whatever other role he needed to fill. This was much better than what I was expecting for a high school production, and the countless hours of hard work and dedication were evident in the quality of the show. Glenn seriously built a shipwreck and mountain on stage. Way better than my H.S. plays for sure! It’s much easier to say all this now that these long two months are behind us and that the play is a tremendous success!

Let’s rewind just a little bit. It’s middle of December and Glenn all of a sudden tells me, I’m going to be really worried about you during January and February. Glenn’s sudden declaration of clairvoyance struck me and I didn’t quite understand what he meant. Glenn had spent the last couple months as drama club instructor at the local high school. All this was in preparation for the Spring Musical that he would be directing. At the time I didn’t fully understand what exactly that commitment meant. I know now! Lots and lots of time!! Glenn literally has been working two jobs for the past two months. He would work his everyday 9-5 job, and then have rehearsals from 5:30 to 8:30. Or supposedly it was supposed to be 8:30. More often it was after 9:00 and the closer it got to opening night closer to 10:00. Glenn walked in the door at 10:30 one night and looked completely terrified! He is not the best at calling when he is going to be late. And Saturday rehearsals to top it off! Glenn literally spent every second he could squeeze into an extremely busy schedule making sure that come opening night this show was a success!! All of his hard work definitely paid off! However, it was a miserable two months for me!

I went through so many stages of emotion during this play. I started out thinking Glenn was silly to be worried. I would be fine. I am a loving and supportive wife, and of course I want him to direct the play, and work on something that makes him happy, and put all his skills to use. It didn’t even take a week before the feelings of loneliness crept in and I started watching the seconds tick on the clock until Glenn came home. Then feelings of jealousy towards the play and how much time it consumed. Then slight irritation at the play and feeling like he gave the play more attention than me. Too being completely angry at the play and wishing he never did it in the first place. People can judge me all they want for that last part. I really don’t care! We are still Newlyweds, and I like spending time with my husband, and I felt like we weren’t getting enough quality time together. I have been a complete wreck this last two months and have apologized to Glenn on multiple occasions. I really tried to be supportive of this play as much as possible. I went to rehearsals, and spent a couple Saturdays helping with set construction.

Glenn recognized how hard this was for me and I know he hated the time apart too. Whenever we could Glenn would be sure to take me on a date. He even went and saw The Vow, if that’s not proof enough that he really was trying to his best to keep me happy then I don’t know what is! I know juggling a job, a high school musical, and a needy wife made him exhausted. I owe him a very long massage after tonight’s finale performance.

Glenn was squeezing my hand so hard before the play started opening night and was so nervous now that everything was out of his hands. I can honestly say that all over smile on his face when it was over was worth the difficult couple months. I may even consider letting him do another play? And just some slight reassurance towards my feelings here…One parent found out I was Glenn’s wife and immediately says to me “Bless your heart!” The life of a director’s wife can be a lonely one at times, but I am beyond proud of Glenn! Looking forward to seeing this play for the third time tonight, and who knows how long it will be until the songs from this show are no longer stuck in my head. Glenn says he has had the Pirates of Penzance soundtrack playing in his head for months, so guess I can’t complain.

The cast presented Glenn with this signed picture of the play from all of them. I know he really grew to love these kids, and you could tell they felt the same way.