A Rising Star

Whew! Last week was so busy—rehearsal every night for three hours, and then two shows on Friday and two shows on Saturday, plus an awards ceremony / cast pizza party in between! But the kids loved it, and Lucy's so proud of what she's been a part of this year. They had almost 2000 people come to see Willy Wonka Jr.! Not bad for a little elementary school play :)

Grace and her mom came out to Friday night's show—it was so fun to go out for ice cream (quickly!) afterwards. Lucy sure felt loved and supported by her best friend!

On Saturday in between the matinee (which Nick and Calvin went to), we had a pizza party for dinner and then an awards ceremony. Lucy's drama club teacher, Ms. Mann, got every single kid an "Oscar" trophy. There were lots of cheers and a few giggles when they noticed Oscar was … naked … And they had printed special full color programs for the cast and gave them time to sign autographs for each other. 

Part of what made the show so fun was how many friends, new and old, that Lucy was able to share this experience with. After each show the cast would go to the lobby of the auditorium and sign autographs for people—Lucy was getting pretty good at it! Here she is with her friend (and our neighbor) Tyler, who played Charlie's Grandpa Joe (we're so proud of him too!).

As a mom, my favorite part of the whole thing happened as the cast was getting ready for their very last show. The high school kids who were running the sound put on a bunch of fun dance songs, and everyone ended up dancing together on the stage. The kids were so cute! And they danced with so much energy—it really got them psyched up for their final show and made it the best one ever! :) 

At the very end, we got a quick picture with Ms. Mann, Lucy's drama club teacher. She was great to teach the kids all kinds of "real theater stuff"—terms, directions, history, etc. Lucy's hoping to take another drama class from her during spring break!