The Little Actresses

A new quarter of acting classes started up this week, and this time Amarra, finally six years old, was old enough to join in. She was so excited...asking, "How many days till my acting class?" every day for about 10 days leading up to her first day. She will be performing with Elora in Cinderella's Mice, a fairy tale from the mouse perspective. I am extremely impressed with Amarra for taking this class, as she can at times be paralyzingly shy (UNlike her big sisters). She wouldn't quite say lines onstage without help during auditions, so she is thrilled that her part will be small. But the real story here is that she auditioned. She got onstage and said lines.I am so incredibly proud of her. I actually tried a bit to talk her out of taking the class because I've had so much fun with her during the girl's classes, but to no avail.  Now it's just the boy and me. But he's pretty fun, too, so I suppose I'll get by.)
Seleia, running around in the bright orange shirt up there, will be performing in The Creature in the Classroom, a play based on and primarily written in poetry. The lines she has brought home already are hilarious. I love watching her laugh every time she reads them.
Performances are March 9th, people! Mark your calendars!

Favorite Fantasy Scenes

Seleia's little drama troupe had so much fun performing in Favorite Fantasy Scenes, a story that wove together excerpts from The Neverending Story, The Hobbit, Peter Pan, Alice In Wonderland, and A Midsummer Night's Dream to tell about the importance of reading and imagination in our lives. Of how these stories mean something important and have much to teach us. I wish I could have gotten more pictures of the performance! Very tricky to do while videotaping with the other hand, though...

In The Neverending Story Seleia played "Bully #3", taunting Bastien about his book report ("Lets have a read-a-thon." She shouted sarcastically, among other things). In The Hobbit She was the dwarf Sorin ("What does he know of sorrow!!?") and she was hilarious as a Lost Boy in Peter Pan. "My mother had wrote my name on the picnic basket I was lost in.  Slightly Soiled, that;s my name!" My favorite of all, though, was her performance as the Queen of Hearts. "YOU ALARM ME! I feel faint! Give me a ham sandwich! ANOTHER! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!" (The picture with the lovely camera flash in the mirror...they were performing in the Looking Glass Hall at Northwest Children's Theater... is Seleia on a pedestal as the Queen herself. These pictures just cannot do it justice!) They all did a fantastic job!  And, yes....we're very proud, Seleia!

Finding Spring!!

This last week was the end of our drama season, with Elora shining as Pinky the Tulip in Finding Spring.  Toad is distraught that he can't find Spring, even though it's only early March, so Frog, Snail, Wormeena and the others join in to help him look, only to discover it wasn't the season he was looking for, but his cousin, named Spring. Elora made the cutest flower bulb ever, of course, and was hilarious when she got irritated with Toad for all the noise and threw a "rock", nailing him in the head. "Look, it's that Toad again. He really is quite self-centered.  Doesn't he realize that bulbs need their sleep?  How does he expect ME to be ready for SPRING?  Silly old Toad!  Get a life!"  Everyone was cast so perfectly and did such a great job. (Though, I have to admit that one of my favorite things was Frog's English accent coming and going throughout the performance.) The musical numbers were so much fun, Elora's solo was beautiful, and her smile lasted for days!  Way to go Elora!  We're so proud of you!