Annie
First of all, Happy Birthday to 
baylorsr, who makes my LJ world a brighter place with her posts, stories and icons (and the MP3 of "Double Trouble" she sent me last week so UT can learn it!). Celebrate and enjoy, Baylor!
We put on our first performance of "Annie" today. The kids were fabulous.
We had a gymful of classes, teachers and parents and John faithfully videoing the show from the back (looks like we'll be offering DVDs of the show for sale to the Gr. 5 students). I was stationed in the gym to deal with crises of lighting, sound, music, the other Gr. 5 teacher was stationed in the back to deal with crises of cast, costuming and props, but, all in all, there were very few glitches.
Our cast was wonderfully "on" today :). It's almost miraculous how an audience can draw a fun and nuanced performance from a kid who was only going through the motions just a week ago. Our Annie hit every note today and she's been sketchy in her vocals through rehearsals. The bubbly personality we sensed from the earlier auditions burst forth today and she was a hit. Our Daddy Warbucks, a shy boy by nature, rose to the occasion today and gave a strong performance. Our Grace Farrell, another quiet student, ruled the stage with poise and confidence. Our Rooster, always our strongest dancer, strutted through his scenes, improvising cocky dance moves to the delight of the kids in the audience. Our Miss Hannigan was cynical and funny and sang "Little Girls" with style.
Again, God bless Mrs. Morales, who worked so hard choreographing all the dance numbers in the show. The orphan numbers "It's The Hard Knock Life" and "You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile" were great, and watching individual dances like "Easy Street" and "NYC" and "I Don't Need Anything But You" and the group finale of "Tomorrow" just had me grinning from ear to ear as I watched today. You could just tell the audience was having a good time.
Fun, too, to hear the comments of teachers as they watched. Like the Gr. 4 and primary teachers astonished at the growth and talent of students they'd had in previous years. Like the principal who said she wished we had invited other schools to come and watch because the production was so good.
So, it was one of those days where after huge amounts of work and repetition and long hours and frustration and organization you say, "Oh, yeah, -that's- why we did this!". It really was wonderful to see the kids receiving accolades for their hard work, the bunch of them glowing as they heard the applause at the end of the show and the cheers from back-stage as the curtain dropped.
Even still Lily and I are -definitely- taking a break next year and not doing a musical :). Three musicals in three years have been fun, but we need a rest.
We will be performing "Annie" one more time on Thursday afternoon. I hope to take some photos of the kids in costume at that time to post here.
baylorsr, who makes my LJ world a brighter place with her posts, stories and icons (and the MP3 of "Double Trouble" she sent me last week so UT can learn it!). Celebrate and enjoy, Baylor!We put on our first performance of "Annie" today. The kids were fabulous.
We had a gymful of classes, teachers and parents and John faithfully videoing the show from the back (looks like we'll be offering DVDs of the show for sale to the Gr. 5 students). I was stationed in the gym to deal with crises of lighting, sound, music, the other Gr. 5 teacher was stationed in the back to deal with crises of cast, costuming and props, but, all in all, there were very few glitches.
Our cast was wonderfully "on" today :). It's almost miraculous how an audience can draw a fun and nuanced performance from a kid who was only going through the motions just a week ago. Our Annie hit every note today and she's been sketchy in her vocals through rehearsals. The bubbly personality we sensed from the earlier auditions burst forth today and she was a hit. Our Daddy Warbucks, a shy boy by nature, rose to the occasion today and gave a strong performance. Our Grace Farrell, another quiet student, ruled the stage with poise and confidence. Our Rooster, always our strongest dancer, strutted through his scenes, improvising cocky dance moves to the delight of the kids in the audience. Our Miss Hannigan was cynical and funny and sang "Little Girls" with style.
Again, God bless Mrs. Morales, who worked so hard choreographing all the dance numbers in the show. The orphan numbers "It's The Hard Knock Life" and "You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile" were great, and watching individual dances like "Easy Street" and "NYC" and "I Don't Need Anything But You" and the group finale of "Tomorrow" just had me grinning from ear to ear as I watched today. You could just tell the audience was having a good time.
Fun, too, to hear the comments of teachers as they watched. Like the Gr. 4 and primary teachers astonished at the growth and talent of students they'd had in previous years. Like the principal who said she wished we had invited other schools to come and watch because the production was so good.
So, it was one of those days where after huge amounts of work and repetition and long hours and frustration and organization you say, "Oh, yeah, -that's- why we did this!". It really was wonderful to see the kids receiving accolades for their hard work, the bunch of them glowing as they heard the applause at the end of the show and the cheers from back-stage as the curtain dropped.
Even still Lily and I are -definitely- taking a break next year and not doing a musical :). Three musicals in three years have been fun, but we need a rest.
We will be performing "Annie" one more time on Thursday afternoon. I hope to take some photos of the kids in costume at that time to post here.