T.O.R.T. - Talentless???

For the past 6 weeks I've been spending my Monday nights (and every night last week) singing and dancing in preparation for The Theater of the Relatively Talentless' (T.O.R.T.) production of "Robin Hood, Esq.". My role was limited to 3 dances, some background standing, and one line ("Yeah...but that's not because you're poor, that's because you're lazy."), but it was so much fun!

For those of you I haven't told about this, I'll give a little bit of background. Every year law students write, produce, direct, and act in a musical. It's always a parody of some other story, but they set the story in the law school (past musicals include "West Bank Story," "Walter Mondale and the Lawyer Factory," and "Frankenlaw"). The writers also incorporate well known songs, changing the words so that it fits within the story. Most of the jokes either refer to drinking or are inside jokes about law school (see my previous post).

I don't typically dance (unless of course it's an ADX dance party) so this whole hip shakin' thing was a little bit outside of my comfort zone. However, after 5 weeks of practicing in what one of my friends refers to as "the fish bowl" I was ready for the big stage. Our practice room was a lounge area with all glass walls in the front entrance to the law school and on the direct route to the library. People would stop as they walked by and literally gawk at us. Needless to say, the nightly audience helped with the stage fright in front of the paying audience.

My cousin, some of his friends, my roommate, and most of the law school were fortunate enough to see me make a fool of myself. Since most of the people who read this were not so lucky, I'll post some pictures.


We performed at a real theater in Minneapolis. It was impressive. ;)

Me and Christine on the first night of dress rehearsals. This is pre-dress after a treacherous commute to the theater because of icy sidewalks. Incidentally, even though Christine and I spend all our time together this is our first picture together.

The Mollys. There are 3 1Ls named Molly and we all happened to be in TORT(Molly on the left is also in my section and Molly in the center is also in my Bible study). I knew a girl in my kindergarten class named Molly, but other than her, my personal interactions with Mollys have been limited to dogs, so the fact that there are three of us is pretty impressive.

The section C ladies. Me, Annie (who had one of the leads as Robin Hood's L.L.M. companion), Jen, and Molly. Note the creative use of our hands to make the letter "C."