ALT's The King and I: My Synopsis and Commentary with pics

The King and I

In case you missed the show, I offer a silly little synopsis with pics

Photo Credits:  Randy Talley and Cheryl Sharps

(except the last two are Arthur and Melanie respectively)

Widow Anna Leonowens and her son Louis arrive in Bangkok, and "Whistle a Happy Tune" because they feel a little afraid.  Anna has accepted a position as school teacher to the royal children of the King of Siam.

After weeks of waiting around the meet the king, Anna is finally presented and meets a few of his wives; those who are in favor with king.  She shows them she isn't shaped like her dresses and sings about her deceased husband, Tom, who was "pretty in face."  These bloomers are a little better than the ones I ended up with which reminded me of clydesdale legs.  

(Thanks to Courtney for that visual image.)

She meets the royal children and decides to stay and teach them despite the king reneging on his promise to give her a "brick residence adjoining the royal palace."  But she doesn't give up on trying to get him to keep his promise and teaches the children plenty of songs about "home" to remind the king of his promise.

The school room:

(Dallin is standing on the left, and Daphne is the third child in from the right in the red shirt.)

This is my favorite costume.  (And it's not even finished in this picture.)  I asked if I could keep it, but they must have thought I was joking because they didn't give it to me! Can you believe our costume designer made it out of three bedsheets?    

After teaching for more than a year, Anna has met the people of Siam and has begun to understand them.  And we all sing a delightful song about "Getting to Know You."  During the song, there is a fan dance, at the end of which I catch a fan (my odds of catching it got better and better as the show went on.  I think we ended up having a catching streak of 12 times in a row, and I only had to dive for it a couple of times--easier said than done in a dress that size.)

After we "get back to work" the king walks in while the kids are revolting because they don't believe in snow or that Siam is smaller than a lot of other countries.  In the aftermath of said revolt, the king and Anna have a quarrel and Anna determines to leave because he will not keep his promise to give her her house.

My actual son, "Prince Chulalonkorn" and my fake son, "Louis" try to figure out the complexities of grown-ups and how they all pretend they are certain when they are not.  "It's a Puzzlement!"

Dallin doing a pretty great job of being Chulalonkorn.

 Later that night in her room, Anna goes on a tirade against the imaginary king telling him exactly what she thinks of him, and ends up on the floor while taking an imaginary kick from him.

She is interrupted by Lady Thiang who asks Anna to go to the King and help him with some pressing foreign affairs.  Anna refuses to go to him, but Lady Thiang changes her mind by singing "Something Wonderful."  

Anna goes to the king and sneakily gets him to confide in her and advises him without it sounding like advice.   In process she promises to never let her head be higher than the king's, and they come up with a brilliant idea to impress the English ambassador.

The English have arrived early so they have a flurry of preparations to work on, but first, they must pray to Buddha.  While insulting Anna during the prayer, the King promises to give that "unworthy woman a house.  A brick residence adjoining the royal palace according to agreement.  Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!"

 That's the end of Act I.

In Act II, I come out in this scandalous dress that shows my shoulders, etc. etc. etc!  

Hayden as Buddha in the ballet.  He was adorable.  This picture doesn't have his amazing hat that was completed after opening weekend.  I would watch him from the wings on his tall Buddha tower and he would do this funny thing where he would blow on the fog surrounding him and watch it move in the lights.  He thought he was being sneaky about it, but I noticed.  

After the dinner and Tuptim's ballet that greatly impressed Sir Edward (who will return to Queen Victoria with a glowing report,) the King and Anna rejoice in the success of the evening and Anna teaches the King to polka.

"Shall We Dance"

"It was not holding two hands like this.  It was . . .  like this!" 

They dance a splendid polka, a slightly impossible romance is in the air, and everything is peachy until the Kralahome comes in with news of Tuptim's discovery and capture.   And spoils everything!

It all goes downhill from there. 

The Kralahome yells at Anna that she has destroyed king and makes her cry.  

And she really decides to leave this time.

Anna goes to see the king once more before she sails for England, and is moved by the children to stay with them longer.  

The King passes his authority to the crown prince Chulalonkorn, and then he dies.

So sad, right?  I cry when I watch Yul Brynner die, and I cried when Dean died too.  Real tears on my fake eyelashes.  Good show, though.  And everything was happy again when we all came out alive for curtain call.  

But nobody was happier than Arthur after the last show! 

(I know I already posted this, but it's just such a great picture.) 

That Time I Got to Dance with a King in a Really BIG Dress

I recently had a dream come true.  (For backstory of said dream see this post and this post from last year).  It feels pretty amazing.  I finally got to do something that I'd been thinking about and wishing for since I was young.  Watching "The King and I" with my family growing up, I would imagine how fun it would be to wear those big hoop skirts and sing "Getting to Know You" or "Shall We Dance."

So after getting the part with Albuquerque Little Theater in December, and three of my children being cast as well, we rehearsed for most of January and February, and recently completed had a 4 weekend run of The King and I (Feb 27-March 22).

In January and February King and I rehearsals were in full swing.  We rehearsed up to 5 nights a week Sunday-Thursday and had Friday and Saturday nights off.  It was BUSY and required a colossal coordination of schedules and babysitters since Arthur was also gone frequently on business or coaching basketball for 2 of our 3  b-ball players.

I worked really hard to keep dinner time together a regular occurrence as much as possible even if it meant eating at 4:45 some nights before we all scattered to the four winds!  It took significant effort but was totally worth it because sometimes that 20 minutes around the table were the only times our family was all together in a given day.  Not ideal or sustainable, but I think we managed pretty well for those couple of months.  Family Home Evenings were moved to 3:30 p.m. on Sundays during that time since we not only had rehearsal but basketball practice on Monday nights.  That kept us fairly regular with our family "nights."

While it was crazy and busy and required a ton of energy and thought to organize and coordinate everything during those 8 weeks of rehearsal, I think we handled things pretty well.  (This go around was so much easier than when I did Secret Garden because I wasn't pregnant this time!  What a HUGE difference it makes to not be making a baby at the same time as trying to maintain a functioning family and be in a show.)  

On opening weekend, we had a "talk-back" which is where the cast comes on stage after the show and answers questions from any of the audience who stayed.  One little girl asked me "How long have you been acting?"  I guess the short answer is "since high school."  But I've thought about that question a lot, because to be honest, one of my "stage insecurities" is my acting.  Ask me how long I've been singing and I would tell you 35 years--I've been singing since before I can remember with my family.  And I've been receiving vocal training in some form or another since I was in elementary school choir up through voice lessons at BYU and I continue to get vocal coaching from time to time even now.  But acting is another story.  I never took a drama class, never had any acting training of any kind except what I've gleaned in the few shows I've been in.  There were a few nights during King and I rehearsals when I felt like I was beating my head against a wall trying to figure out what the director was trying to get out of me.  But don't worry, I think I basically figured it out and learned a lot about acting along the way.

In general, I just love the whole theater process: the rehearsing, the memorizing, the staging,  then adding costumes, set, lights and make-up.  I love meeting new people and creating something beautiful with them.  It's amazing how many people were involved in this show behind the scenes:  the director, choreographer and musicians, the sound and lighting crew, the deck hands, the costume designer, the wardrobe mistress, the dressers (I sometimes had up to four ladies helping me with costumes on two of my quick changes), the spot light operators, set builders, and props designer.   It's mind boggling to think of all the time and talent invested in one show.  Everyone has an important part to play.  And together, each one of us doing our assigned part on or off the stage, we create magic.

I also love the audience: they are the reason we tell the story night after night.  The audience brings a whole new energy and magic to the theater.  I love their laughter when it's humorous, their sniffles during the sad parts, the applause and cheers after the songs.   Or during the songs!  If I was lucky, someone would start applause during Anna's polka with the King.  (I should tell you that dancing with a king with my huge skirts flying out behind me was pretty thrilling.  And it just felt like someone should be clapping about that.)  Also, I'm not gonna lie, when we are finished telling the story, finished singing the songs, and saying our lines, and feeling everything that we felt in order to convey the story to the audience, it is pretty cool to come out at the end with the lights in your eyes, surrounded by people who have worked so hard together, and have the audience clap and cheer and sometimes even stand for you.

Yep.  I love it.

What made it even more magical was that I got to share this experience with three of my children.  It was so fun to share the process with them--to go to rehearsals together and learn the music together and hang out with them backstage, and give them high-fives as they went out to the wings to prepare for their entrances.  I am very proud of how they conducted themselves respectfully and professionally.

One more thing before a slew of pictures.  A dream this big doesn't happen by itself.  I had the love and support of so many people cheering me on through this.  Friends who brought my family dinner during tech week, friends who helped watch my kids, a friend who put together a make-up kit for me and taught me how to wear fake eyelashes like a true diva, and over 200 people from church who came out to see the show during the run.  I also had friends and family come in from out of state to see us and that meant so much to me.

My parents, grandparents and brothers came in from CA

The Steels--From Albuquerque, but it was a sacrifice for Chez to sit through a 3-hour musical, so he gets special recognition.  ;)

Natalie and Kyrie drove out from Southern CA.

The Carters came from AZ

Mel flew out on her birthday to catch our final show the next day.  

Also, I am married to a really wonderful guy who sacrificed a lot to let this dream become a reality.  He spent a lot of evenings on his own with the other three children, and even declined an opportunity to attend a business trip to Germany so that he could be there to hold down the fort during tech week and attend our opening night performance.  He came once each weekend during the run, and can quote that show with the best of them.  I am so blessed to share my life with this man who gives me space to fly.

Lastly, I feel like Heavenly Father was in the details of this, even though I know in the eternal scheme of things, being "Anna" in The King and I  is not very significant.  But it was important to me, and I feel like Heavenly Father just helped things to line up.  Here are just a few things that fell into place:

1) The show was directed by Nancy Sellin who was willing to take a chance on a a lady with only 4 shows on her resume.
2) The music director, Cheryl Sharps, was someone I had worked with in Secret Garden so she was already familiar with my capabilities.
3) After I got the role, I needed to find someone who could "nanny" for us while Arthur was on travel.  I wasn't sure who I could ask who would be in a position to stay late at our house, and drive the kids to various activities and keep them on track with their homework.  But at our ward Christmas party, I was sitting next to a gal who mentioned something about a nannying job she had.  So I talked to Corrinne about our situation, and she was able to cover all the dates we needed except one!
4) Daphne's friend, Kirra, from our church was cast and it was a blessing to have her involved because her mom, Amber, could take the kids home when I was required to stay later at rehearsals.
5) The Stake Youth Conference that I'm currently directing (which is usually slated for March) was able to be moved (after a lot of thought and careful calendaring by the Stake leaders) so that I could do King and I first, and then focus on the Youth Conference.
6) I was blessed with very good physical and vocal health for the duration of the run.

So basically, I just want to acknowledge the hand of my Father in Heaven throughout this experience.  I felt it over and over again.  So many little things just fell into place, that I know it wasn't merely coincidence.  Again, I don't know if being in a musical has any eternal significance, but Heavenly Father wants us to have joy in this life, and I loved my "King and I" experience.  Also, I was able to have a lot of discussions about my faith with people in the cast and crew, and even gave one of them a Book of Mormon.  Through the process, I realized just how small my normal sphere of influence is-- basically limited to my church,  so it was fun to broaden it for awhile and associate with so many wonderful and different people from our community.

And now some pics:

Anna, and her skirt.  The skirt really should be listed as one of the characters.  It kind of takes on an entity of its own.  Thus I spent most of the rehearsals wearing "rehearsal hoops."  This was my "warm-up" hoop while the real ones were being made.  Pretty unimpressive compared to THIS:

Now, that's much better.  :)

The kids doing some costume fittings:

All ready to take our head-shots for the lobby and program:

Sneak peak of some of the costumes--the first ones ready for the publicity shots

I just love this picture of the kids costumes in progress.  The colors are stunning!

My Favorite Costume:

I did a couple of interviews on Kasa News, which was a pretty fun, albeit slightly stressful experience.

Our choreographer, Peter, Director, Nancy, and Music Director, Cheryl.

Awesome Stage Manger, Mickey

My three little Siamese children backstage.

Me and Courtney, aka Lady Thiang.  We were dressing-roommates and she did my hair for each performance.  Loved getting to know her.

Part of the fun of theater is meeting such great new friends:

Hayden crashed on the floor on the way to brush his teeth during tech week. 

Too many late nights in a row!

March Quotes

Daphne handed the ringing phone to me and said, "It's Nona!"  As I took the phone Bennett protested, "No! MY Nona!"

One Saturday morning Bennett was the first one up and was making noise in his crib.  After awhile he started calling people's names hoping someone would come rescue him from his crib.    Here's what I heard: "Mama?  Dada? Da-ney (daphne) Non, (Sean). Ni-ney (Sydney).  Mama, w' aaaarrrre you?  Mama! Dada! Stinky poo-poo!"  (The funny thing is that he was not stinky, but he has figured out that we will come to change him if he tells us that.)

Hayden to Sydney: It's bad manners to eat popcorn like that.

Syd: How do you know everything?  Mom, Hayden thinks he's the king of me!

Hayden to Daphne:  Why are you thinking about your wedding right now? If I was a girl, I would plan my wedding when I'm about to get married.  Not at the age that you are right now.

Bennett:  Lellow tar! (yellow car) I win!

At Aunt Julianne's house, the kids found a fuzzy caterpillar in the driveway.  Caleb promptly stepped on it, and Hayden replied with,  "Caleb! Why do you gotta kill everything?!?" (Caterpillar)

On a hike in Washington Hayden held up a big wad of moss and said, "This is a growing place!"

Bennett pointing to the Southwest plane we were about to board:  Bid, bid, ba-loo (blue) airplane!

Show Fest 2015

Dallin loves being a part of his middle school show choir.  This year their show was called "Neverland" and it's awesome.  The costumes are great, the music is great, and they do such a good job of it.  You can tell from the pictures that Dallin really enjoys performing.  Unfortunately, at this performance there was a lady with blonde hair that I just couldn't get around.  You'll see her in almost all of the pics ruining my view.