ANNIE

PREFACE:
My sophomore year, my schedule needed a filler.  The only thing left was a Drama class.  NOT something I was interested in, but I decided I could survive a semester if I had to. 
I was quite, shy, and self confidence was not one of my strong points.  But being in that class opened a whole new world to me.  By the end of that semester I was back in the office, trying to arrange my schedule again.  But this time I was dropping other classes (choir), so I could stay in the drama class.
I found hidden strengths within myself that I still use today.  It filled my teenage years with constructive positive things.  I loved it. 


Fast forward 15 years.  (Yes, it's been 15 years, blah!)
My audience is no longer a hundred people out for an evening of entertainment.  My stage is no longer in a auditorium.   My audience is 3 beautiful little girls, and my stage is more often than not, our humble little school room. 
Every choice I make in life is now predicated on "how will this affect my girls." 



It's been SO important to me to make sure I don't "push" my own interests and hobbies on my kids.  But when I found out about tryouts for ANNIE, I remembered how much theatre had helped me.
I suggested trying out for the play, and my girls automatic response was "no."  They avoid anything "new" or different from their comfortable routine.  But I told them that at KCMT (Kitsap Children's Musical Theatre), they give you 2 weeks to see if it's a good fit for your family.  I promised that if they didn't like it, I would let them go back to their quiet, routine infused dance class. 
After one rehearsal . . . they were hooked.  They have LOVED it. 
They loved it so much, they both had tears streaming down their faces once we all got home and it hit them that it was over.  (More about that at the end.) 


Tryouts were back in August.  KCMT is such a great theater outlet for kids!  No one gets turned away.  Everyone gets to be in the play.  But you still must "try out."  Each child reads lines, sings a part of a song, and learns a dance for the casting crew.  In fact, tryouts were more professional than any play I ever tried out for. 

Rehearsals consisted  mostly of Saturday mornings for my girls.  Kids with lead roles had to come 3 days a week. 

Until November that is.  As wonderful as this has all been, I would be lying if I didn't admit that November has been a very full calender month for us.  But even better than our full calender has been our full house!  I still can't believe they did it.  Both weekends of the play, the girls had someone in the audience who traveled MANY MANY MANY miles, just to come watch them!   It was so sweet and so wonderful and so much fun.  We feel truly blessed. 

Due to the time of year, weather was a factor for our visitors and nobody wanted to disappoint the girls if there was an unexpected blizzard or something.  So for the first weekend, we just didn't tell them anyone was coming.  But Friday afternoon their was a knock at the door.

I still think they're all crazy.  13 hours in a car.  Just to come see a play.  But crazy or not it made for an awfully fun weekend. 
(disclaimer: I do not normally remember to take SO MANY pictures.  But my sister . . . takes A LOT.)  :)

Opening a new ornament from Grandma & Grandpa.  (They were dragons!)

AND, bonus for ME, we found some time for me and my dad to put up some of my Christmas lights.  :)  My dad is the reason I love Christmas lights.  So it meant a lot to me to get to do that with him.

 

While we were outside doing lights, Aunt Lou did some pedicures.

The next day, my Aunt Beth crashed the party too.  Love my Aunite Bethie!

At last it was time for the show.

 

After the show with their fans.

Sporting their new hats from Grandma Hawkins.

This one makes up for the tongue shot. (Stinking cute!)

The next day we took some time to celebrate my love's birthday and Aunt Lou's birthday.

It was such a fun little weekend!  My girls had a real hard time the day everybody left though.

But the show must go on.  They did a performance during the week as an assembly for local schools.  KCMT is such a great well behaved group of kids! 

Then my love's mom decided that she too, just couldn't miss it.  Made the trip over and back in less than 48 hours!  The amount of support and love these girls received from family and friends was so humbling to me.  I'm so grateful that my girls have so many people who love them! 
Even though it was a quick trip, we squeezed in every minute of fun that we could.  The day of their performance they had a breakfast tea party. 

But not too long after, it was off to the theater! 

I didn't realize it until after the fact, but it was nice that it worked out that the girls had someone in the audience both weekends.  It made it more fun knowing there was someone waiting with hugs and cheers just for you.

 

My love was so supportive of his girls (and me) through all this.  Theatre certainly isn't one of his passions.  But through all the practices and the busy two weeks leading up to the performance, he never complained, or sighed, or made silent "I'm not excited about this" faces.  :)  I lost count of the loads of dishes he washed and the loads of laundry he folded while I was busy helping costume orphans. 

We got some pictures of the girls with their new friends that night too.

The next day the girls had to say goodbye again.  But first they got to wear their Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Staley early.  (They all look so beautiful!!!  And grown up.  And just beautiful! LOVE these girls!)

 

 

 

Well, now it's over.  It was such an amazing wholesome positive activity for my girls.  When we first started in on this adventure, I well remembered my own years in the theatre and the required devotion and demands on your time.  From the get go, I promised my love that this would be a once a year adventure.  Not a constant life style.  But that night as we washed off the stage makeup and tears streamed down their faces, my love and I were both second guessing our "plans." 
Our plan was to put them back in ballet and let them do another play some time next year.  But that's certainly not what they want to do.  I can't say that I blame them.  Quietly standing at a bar, doing plies and pirouettes, seems kind of . . . . slow . . . . quiet . . . . okay, down right boring, compared to the broadway style singing and dancing they've been getting to do.  But I don't know.  I want to encourage them to be well rounded.  Not eat-sleep-drink theatre.  I don't know!  Gah!  Got a month before dance registrations starts, so we've got some time to decide. 
Until then, THANKS again to all the friends who I didn't get pictures of, but also took the time to come support my girls!  We love this rainy place we call home.