“Okay, people, let’s get started,” Mr. B calls, striding into the auditorium with Brittany at his side. I shove the potion in my backpack and hurry to join the rest of the cast onstage. “We’re going to run through all the choreography we’ve learned so far and see where we are. I’ll be running all the major magical effects from now on, so you guys can get used to that. I know we’ve been a little ambitious with the choreography for this show—”

“A little?” Ed says dryly. A few people give him snaps for that comment.

“Okay, you goons. We wouldn’t have given you this choreography if we didn’t think you could do it,” Mr. B says. He looks to Brittany, who nods like an overenthusiastic bobblehead. “So suck it up, and get your butts over to the piano.”

Mr. B leads us in a short vocal warm-up, then tells us to go to places for the opening of the show. Thank god this is the first thing we’re doing. I’m in less than half of this song.

I stand in the wings as the rehearsal track for the opening, “Neighbors,” begins to play. The run-through gets off to a rough start. An air of general bewilderment hangs over the group as they attempt to sing the harmonies while doing the intense, slow-motion choreography. The people in charge of freezing the water gushing out of the fire hydrant props aren’t hitting their cues, so Ed keeps getting sprayed in the face. He valiantly keeps singing about how excited he is to move to a new neighborhood but looks like he’s about to break down laughing.

Meanwhile, Mr. B is manipulating magic left and right. He transfigures whole live trees into existence, electrifies streetlight props to light up, and starts a fire in the grill prop. I watch, mouth slightly ajar, as a whole massive piece of our set—the house my character lives in—grows from a tiny square to an almost-life-size facade. He basically creates the entire setting of the neighborhood onstage during the song, and he does all of it on cue with the music. It’s a ridiculous display of power and control. I knew that our school’s musicals had really intense magical effects, but I didn’t know that almost all of them were run by Mr. B. I assumed he had people helping him.

We only get through half the song before the track clicks off. I stick my head out of the wings, wondering what happened.

“I think we can all agree that sucked,” Mr. B says genially. “Everyone needs to be downstage by the end of the first verse. If you’re still upstage, you’re going to get hit by the house. Reset for the top.”