The stage was set. The final actors found their place on the stage, beneath a blanket in the big bed shared by all of Charlie Bucket’s grandparents. The lights remained dim and the audience, nearly five hundred students and their teachers, held their breath in anticipation.
The moment felt long…
Five weeks of reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a school community. Weeks of rehearsals, Oompa Loompa music drifting through the halls during after school rehearsals. Hours of children painting scenery and preparing the stage. All of this hung in the air as the entire school community sat in silence awaiting our very first school musical to begin.
Paused
Finally, the stage awoke with light and the characters-now familiar to all. The show had begun. The crowd remained mostly silent, in awe, of what unfolded before our eyes.
This moment was worth the wait.
Where There's Joy 
I can feel the excitement!
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I can feel the excitement and anticipation. I love how you told this moment so slowly, so stretched out n
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Perfectly placed pauses in the slice. They capture the wait. The anticipation of 500 people was captured in your carefully crafted sentence! Thanks for sharing! Oh an I agree, it was well worth the wait!
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The moment before the beginning – so full of possibility! A school musical is an impressive undertaking. Yours sounds like it was lots of fun.
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You’ve built just the right amount of anticipation into this piece! The moment when the show begins is such a pivotal one!
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Thank you for capturing this. It was such a joy to share our work with the school community.
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I was holding my breath reading each word. You’ve captured the drama of the drama!
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So good. Makes me wish I could have been there too! Thanks for building the sense of anticipation with the climax of the musical’s start!
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It’s such a good show for kids to know, whether it’s watching or performing in it. The messages are all still so important. Someone once told me that people remember getting in trouble and school plays when they think about school– not much else. Interesting, right?
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I love how you focused on the anticipation in the moment before it all begins, and left it up to the reader to imagine the rest!
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That collective inhale of anticipation. You captured it so well.
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So cool that everyone read the book so they could follow the performance. Love this!
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