WHOA!! I'm glad I checked this forum...
The deadline is today; does that mean I can still sign up? If so,
count me in. Now I'll go read the rest of this thread.
EDIT: On the percussionists doing crazy things note, I remember this past year I once had to play crash cymbal and suspended cymbal at the same time; there was no suspended cymbal and I had no time to put the once crash cymbal down. On top of that, I had to cover triangle. I managed it; what I did was take up the crash cymbals both hanging down, so my palms were facing each other. Then, with my right hand, I grabbed both a yarn mallet (yarn end coming out of the top of my hand) and triangle beater (striking end coming out of the bottom). The triangle was clamped onto a music stand.
For the suspended cymbal, I'd use the yarn mallet and let the left cymbal hang; for the triangle I had to hit out of the back of my hand without letting the right cymbal get in the way, and for crashing I just brought up both cymbals. It was the most awkward thing to do ever... though once I also got asked to play four mallet instruments (vibes, glock, xylo, tubular) at the same time. You should have seen it, it was like some old black and white movie. The parts traded so fast, I was running ragged from one to the next, usually getting there mid-part and having to run again to catch up. About halfway through the piece I gave up.
Lesson in what to avoid when writing for a specific group!
