Bright Copper Penny: Masquerade: Bring It On: Rock the Mouse

Entry Title: Bring It On: Rock the Mouse
Fandoms: Disney animated movies/Bring It On
Convention: San Diego Comic-Con 2009
Award: Best Presentation
Producers: Corli & Caitlin
Director/Choreographer: Caitlin
Audio: Corli
Voiceover: Rogue
Mickey Mouse costume by: My dad John

Cast Members: Alex (Hercules), Amy (Sleeping Beauty), Breanna (Mulan), Caitlin (Maleficent), Corli (Cruella), Danica (Cinderella), Kent (Hook), Mike (Aladdin), Nichoel (Belle), Nicole (Ursula), Rachel (Queen of Hearts), Rogue (Jafar), Sean (Mickey Mouse), Steph (Jasmine), Tree (Evil Queen), Victoria (Tink), Bryan (stage ninja), Jen (stage ninja), John (stage ninja)
[For those keeping count at home, that's a total of 19 people.]

I'd been wanting to do a cheerleading skit for years, but I could never find the right fandom for it. I knew I wanted to do something in the vein of Bring It On, with two rival cheerleading squads. In early 2008, Corli and I were brainstorming via email, and we hit on doing it with Disney heroes and villains, which would let us use the song "Hey Mickey" (which has cheerleaders in the music video) and have it be extra-funny. Plus, we could incorporate the quick-change idea I'd also been wanting to do, and have the characters change from full costume to cheer outfits mid-skit.

So we started recruiting and trying to put the skit together for SDCC 2008, but we just couldn't make it work. I wanted at least a dozen characters, but we couldn't seem to get more than ten, people had to drop out, and it was getting later and later and we weren't going to be able to do it *right,* and if we were going to do it, I wanted to do a damn good job. So we pushed it off till 2009, and we did Corli's Hairspray skit instead. Which was awesome.

Then, in January 2009, we picked the idea back up and started shaping it further. We abandoned our original idea of having all "matching" heroes and villains from the same movies, which allowed us more freedom in picking costumes. Rogue came up with the idea of structuring the skit as a trailer for Bring It On 5. We recruited even more people, conning our Disney-obsessed friends into joining and linking up with some other Masquerade costumers we'd long admired (the folks behind the Dancing With Celebrities and Van Hellsing skits), and wound up with 15 characters in total.

Then we decided we needed a Mickey Mouse, and I *really* conned my dad into agreeing to make the head. Because my dad, as my theater friends know very well, can do pretty much anything, given enough time. My brother agreed to be Mickey because it meant he could be involved but wouldn't have to actually show his face. So now we were 16-- three in the Bay Area, two in Arizona, one in Pennsylvania, and the other 10 in SoCal.

We hammered the skit out by early spring and Corli started putting together the audio. I choreographed the first half of the skit and made tutorial videos for everyone. We set our first SoCal rehearsal for a Saturday in mid-May, and we practiced the first half of the number, up through the costume strip. I did more choreography and made more videos. We had an almost-full rehearsal in mid-June, with everyone but my brother and two of the NorCal people. It lasted 8 hours. No, I don't know how I convinced them to do it either, but I'm grateful beyond words.

July arrived, and people started frantically working on their costumes because they realized they weren't going fast enough. (Except Cordelia, who's always done early.) I started sleeping less than five hours a night. We recruited Jen and Bryan as stage ninjas. Dad sent near-daily progress reports on Mickey's head, which looked amazing. Mom got in the act and helped cover Mickey with fabric. Then Dad made Mickey's shoes. Then he shipped Mickey, and we entrusted him to the United Parcel Service. Scary as all hell.

And then suddenly Comic-Con was almost here and there was still a ridiculous amount of work left to do. Dad and Sean arrived late Sunday and, because I asked, spent their entire week building the frame that would hold our Disney castle flag securely and allow us to raise the flag on command. Said frame has been named Melissa and is now required to be used in all future skits. We had our first rehearsal with all of us on Friday night at Nicole, Danica, and Kent's hotel. It went surprisingly well, actually. And then Saturday was Masquerade, and we had another rehearsal for an hour before our fifteen-minute slot on the practice stage, and then we all got dressed and sat in the green room and then lined up backstage for FOREVER.

Then we went onstage, and it went by in maybe two and a half seconds instead of minutes, and the roar that went up when Mickey was revealed was the best thing I've ever heard. And we went back offstage and gathered up our costumes and took pictures and went back to the green room to sit *forever* until the awards were announced. They didn't call our number on the first list (the company prizes) and we waited for another eternity until they came back with the second list and THEY CALLED OUR NUMBER and I just kept repeating, "Oh thank God we won something," because at least I hadn't wasted all these hours and days and weeks of nineteen peoples' lives.

So that's what went into this skit. For two and a half minutes on stage.

It was worth every second.

Photos