Pirate Day!

On Saturday morning, Hayden came into my room and exclaimed, "Mom!  It's Pirate Day!"  He was so excited because that day was the Children's Music Theater performance of their two pirate plays.  This year we had two casts--a middle school cast and an elementary cast and they each did a short play on a pirate theme because wanted to use the same set for both plays.  We changed things up a bit from previous years and did the whole thing start to finish in one week.  That's five rehearsals.  Wow, it was intense!  (Oops, I forgot pirates don't say "Wow."  I meant, "Blimey!")

But I was amazed at how well those kids did, and I am so proud of them for having the courage to get up on stage in front of lots of people and sing and dance and say their lines!   Here are some pictures of our adventures last week.

We got to use El Dorado High School, which was GREAT!  We had a large room to meet in for rehearsals and got to perform on a real stage!!!

The Elementary Cast

50 kids, ages 5-10

performed "Pirates! The Musical"

The middle school cast, (new this year) was really fun to work with .  They had a lot of their own creative ideas for staging and character development.  And we did a super fun musical called "How I Became a Pirate."  I constantly have those songs going through my head.

The Middle School cast

27 kids, ages 11-14 

"How I Became a Pirate"

my three little pirate performers

This wig of Bobby's just killed me!  (he was "Blackbeard")

Daphne had a little vocal solo that she did great at.  At auditions, we were having some of the younger kids sing together since they were too scared to sing by themselves, but when we got to Daphne she told us she wanted to sing alone and not with anyone else.  I thought that was so brave of her!

Sean only did this because I bribed him with a new car for his collection.  I think he had fun, but mostly he was just excited at the end of the week when he got his reward.

Dallin was "King of the High C's" and did a terrific job at his part.

Hayden was so sad that he didn't get to be in the play this year.  But he really wanted to be a pirate, too, in fact, he even sang this little song from the play, changing the words a bit, "Oh I wanna be a pirate.  But I need thom (some) pirate clothes!)  So we dressed him up and he helped us welcome the audience and introduce the plays.  He was a pretty adorable little scallywag, if I say so myself.

CMT 2010-Welcome to the Jungle!

Children's Music Theater 2010

Originally, it wasn't going to happen this year because I figured I'd be too tired and cranky to direct a children's musical 9 months pregnant.  My kids kept asking me what play we were going to do this summer, and I told them, we are having a CMT break because I'm having a baby instead.  

But my friend Sarah and I sort-of convinced each other to do it together.  I like the way she put it: that she's not sure who talked who into what, but somehow or other, it was back on, with Sarah in charge and me helping out.  She handled all of the logistics (that was so huge!) and I mostly just directed the rehearsals.

As it turns out, I'm so glad we went ahead and did it, firstly because Daphne mentioned more than a few times in her prayers that she was grateful that "Sister Esplin (Sarah) was doing a play this summer," and secondly, it was a wonderful distraction for me in what is usually the longest month of pregnancy.  

This year we did an assortment of three Aesop Fables: The Tortoise and the Hare, The Fox and the Grapes, and The Mouse and the Lion.  The first two were short, and each had one song that helped illustrate the moral of the story, and the the Lion and the Mouse was the main event--a mini-musical called "Welcome to the Jungle."

I don't have the best pictures, as my camera leaves much to be desired, so I'll post some better ones when I get the pictures from our wonderful photographer (my friend, Erin of course!)  But here are a few to give you the gist.  

For the first two weeks, we rehearse at my house in our big room.  We push all the couches to the sides of the room, and squeeze all the kids in there.  This year's total was 47 kids (including mine and Sarah's.)    We had 11 kids in Jr. CMT (kindergartners & 1st graders) and the rest were in Sr. CMT (2nd-5th).  

My favorite picture of rehearsals was accidentally deleted by Hayden.  It was a picture of him, Sean, and Sarah's little Ellie, who chummed around together most rehearsals.  One of our final rehearsals, they came inside, pulled up some chairs for themselves, and watched the kids singing and dancing.  They were even singing along at some parts.  It was so cute.  But Hayden kept wanting to see that picture on the camera over and over, and at some point, he must have deleted it because when I downloaded the pictures to the computer, it wasn't there.  :(

Here's a run-down of Week Three/Production Week:  Tuesday was the last rehearsal at my house--we practiced for the first time with both Jr. CMT and Sr. CMT (and they were very crowded but for the most part were very patient with each other and I don't think very many toes got stepped on.)  Then we ended with a pizza party.   I think everyone had a fun time just hanging out together.  

Wednesday was a performance/dress rehearsal at the Bear Canyon Estates Retirement Home.  (Pictures coming soon.)

Thursday and Friday were the dress rehearsals at the church where we performed. 

And Saturday afternoon was the big performance:

One of the coolest parts of this year's play was the make-up. We did three Aesop's Fables, so to simplify costumes, rather than try to have everyone come up with their own animal costumes, we just did cast t-shirts, and all the kids got their faces painted for the performance.  The main characters also had ears, to help identify them.

So we assembled an army of face painting parents who got the kids all ready for the performance.  We had monkeys, lions, hippos, giraffes, zebras, cheetas, and elephants.  Plus a few special ones (like a mouse, a tortoise, a hare, and a fox.)   Here is Daphne getting her cheetah face.

And Dallin being transformed into a Zebra.

Below is the amazing mom who coordinated the Make-up effort.  She and her husband were on Broadway together and one of the shows they did was Cats.  (Lots of face make-up in that show!)  So it was awesome that they were willing to help us out in being our Make-up Specialists.

Just a cool shot of four of the parents painting faces.  

I can't believe how talented these people are!

Dallin & Daphne all ready for the performance.

  

Here we are after the performance in front of one of the awesome banners Sarah made.  I don't have pictures of the performance yet--(again, coming soon,) but the kids did great and had such a fun time!  Daphne was so sad at the end of the day when I had to clean her face off.  She was begging and begging for me to leave it on, (maybe she thought she'd be a cheetah at church the next day?) and made me promise that I would let her get her face painted again soon.

Davy Crockett Performance

We had our Children's Music Theater performance of "Davy Crockett" on Friday, June 20th. My kids had a blast! I had 30 kids in this production, ages ranging from almost 5 to 12. and they did such a great job! (And frankly, we need a bigger stage.) They sang out and did their choreography and smiled, and they looked great in their costumes. The set was AMAZING, (thanks to my amazing husband who built it,) and some great moms who helped paint it. Also, since this play is so old, there was no accompaniment CD available, so we had live accompaniment this time. In fact, we had a whole Davy Crockett band with piano, fiddle, guitar and banjo!

We had a great time, and I was so proud of those kids. It's a ton of work, but I think it's worth it for these kids to have an experience where they are singing and dancing and working together, and also cooperating and helping each other out. It gives them something fun to talk about and look forward to, and now to remember.

I actually chose this play because I performed it when I was growing up in California, with a group of children directed by Brad Thompson. I had such a great time, that it inspired me to try to do something similar for my kids. Hence, Stone Soup last year, and Davy Crockett this year. Believe it or not, when I was in it, I was "Carrie Ann" who has blond hair. (There is even a song about her "Yaller Gold" hair.) Obviously, I don't have blond hair so I had to wear a hideous wig which clashed with my dark eyebrows. Haha! Good times. (Maybe I'll dig that picture out and post it.)

And now, the pictures you've all been waiting for . . .

This is just me welcoming the audience, but I posted it because here you can see the awesome set that Arthur built for me. It turned out great, (and we got to use the beautiful mountain backdrop from last year's performance of Stone Soup!)

Opening number, "Old Fashioned 4th of July"

Daphne having just a great time.

Dallin is the boy second from the left. He loved being a part of Mike Fink's crew.

The entire cast. (Too bad the lighting isn't very good on that front row. I'll have to bug my friend for some better pictures taken at the dress rehearsal.)

Mike Fink's crew

My little actors (& Sean) posing in front of the set before it was taken down.)

Stone Soup

On Friday, July 25th, we had the performance of the cute little children's musical I directed, "Stone Soup."  It was pretty much darling, and the kids had a blast!  I'm still working on getting video so you can see some of it, but here are pictures from the rest home performance and the actual performance on the 25th.  The set backdrops were painted by some of the moms, and I love them!  They look like they came out of a storybook.  And the pot for the soup is my favorite prop of all, also done by one of the moms.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What is a CMT?

An acronym for my latest project. CMT stands for Children's Music Theater. I've been keeping really busy doing a Children's Music Theater for kids ages 5-11. We are doing a little 25 minute musical called "Stone Soup."

We've been working our tails off for the last two weeks and this is the final week!  We had a dress rehearsal/performance today at Bear Canyon Estates (An assisted living center). It came together really well, and the people there really enjoyed it. We have two more rehearsals before we perform it for all the parents, friends and family on Friday. It should turn out really cute.

More pictures to come, but here are the costumes I made for my kids, and they are standing in front of one of the set panels painted by some of the amazing moms of the kids in our group.

A villager and a traveler

 Cute Sean--in the picture, but too young to be in the play.

Hayden playing with some of our props.  

Everyone in the play has a wooden spoon, so we've got them coming out our ears!!!