Part of That World

One of my girls' very favorite activities these last few years has been to participate in our charter school's annual musical. For four years now, one or more of my daughters has been involved in a play at Great Expectations Academy. Lorelai appeared in Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast in consecutive years; then Celeste had a part in The Wizard of Oz the following year while Lorelai worked on the crew. The school play this year was an auspicious one, because it was the first time that two of my girls appeared in the same show!

 

The play for the 2016-17 school year was The Little Mermaid, and the whole school was very excited about it. The cast ended up being the largest cast yet for any of these plays (my friend Diana, who is the director, really loves to go "all out" in these endeavors, and that includes casting lots of kids!). Both Lorelai and Celeste got parts. Celeste played a jellyfish (for the "Under the Sea" number, as well as a few cameo appearances), and also a flamingo (for "Kiss the Girl").

Ain't she adorable? And the skirt lit up, too, with twinkling tentacles. Amazing.

Lorelai (a bit to our surprise) was cast as Arista, one of Ariel's many"mersisters." There were six mersisters, and it is a fairly substantial role in the show (the mersisters perform three separate musical numbers), so we were very excited and proud for her.

As a middle schooler, Lorelai was required to bring her own song to perform as a solo at the audition. I recorded the piano accompaniment of the song "Popular" from the musical Wicked, but she usually practiced singing in her room, so I never got to hear how she was doing. I finally made her perform it for me just before the actual audition, and I was surprised and impressed at how confident and strong her voice sounded. Apparently, she can sing pretty well...she just doesn't want anyone to know! I had several friends contact me that day and tell me how well Lorelai had done at the audition. I was very proud, but told Lorelai to not expect any major part. As a regular "chorus member" in the previous shows (and having been a crew member the previous year), I suspect her expectations going into this show were pretty low, so she wasn't too worried about the part she would receive.

The next day, I received a call from Diana telling me that Lorelai was being "called back" to read for some additional parts. We were both pretty excited to hear this news. I knew there were a lot of strong actors & singers at the callbacks, but I was thrilled that she got the chance to go anyway. A day or two after that, when the cast list was released, Lorelai was excited to find out that she was going to be Arista; she immediately started Googling that character to find out more about her, and how she could best portray her. What dedication! I was also proud to notice that out of the six actresses cast as the mersisters, Lorelai was the youngest by more than a year. There were many, many kids who tried out for the show this year, so I was so darn proud of her for getting this part...even though I recognized it would be a lot of work!

Celeste's experience at the tryouts was a little shakier. She wasn't expecting to sing solo at any point, so she had a bit of stage fright when she was asked to do so. She didn't sing well that day, and came home from the tryouts very disappointed in herself. But she found her courage the next day, and did much better on her dance tryout. Overall, she was happy with her part, even if she didn't have a solo/small group singing part like she had at the last show. But there were a lot of young kids in the show this year, and most had the same size of part, so she wasn't bothered by any of it.

As in the previous year, play practices were held once a week after school. Some of the cast members would practice their individual scenes; the others would attend workshops to help improve their singing, dancing, or acting. The result of these regular, more intense practices was a much tighter, more polished final performance.

Since much of this play takes place "underwater," the production aspect of The Little Mermaid was fairly intense. I don't know what the costumes budget for this show was, but it must have been astronomical. Almost every actor had multiple costumes to wear. The majority of these costumes had to be made (some pieced together, some handmade almost from scratch), not purchased. My friend Amanda was the head of the costume department, and she was lucky to have a small herd of devoted ladies (none of whom were paid!) to assemble these truly amazing costumes.

 

 

 There were jellyfish, rainbow fish, seagulls, flamingoes, mermaids, sea horses, owls, frogs, butterflies, puffer fish, princesses, crabs, serving maids, chefs, sailors...the pile of costumes seemed never ending. This was by far the most challenging part of working backstage this year...wrangling all these kids into such a bewildering variety of costumes!

There were also some really awesome eel costumes for Flotsam & Jetsam, and this incredible Ursula dress, which was literally made, start to finish, the week of the show! Catrina, the actress who played Ursula, wore it well and got really into her part!

Amanda was a miracle worker for The Little Mermaid. I don't know if her efforts will be topped in future productions, but I'm sure Diana will still give her lots to do!

The sets and props for the show were more intense than usual as well. In the school's first two shows, there was a large standing wall that portrayed a "castle scene" on one side, and a "village side" on the other. Easy and convenient, and it works well for lots of fairy tales! But not so here. There were a variety of scenes that took place in a variety of places (Ariel's grotto, Scuttle's rocks, Eric's ship, the castle, the lagoon, Ursula's lair, Triton's throne room, Chef Louis' kitchen). I volunteered to be part of the set-building committee, and it was fun (but tiring) to work on putting all these different set pieces together.

My friend Elizabeth was the head of the sets/props committee. She is such an amazing, creative person, and it was awesome to see the ideas she and her husband Scott came up with. They not only built a "ship" portion of the stage, which extended far beyond the church stage we used...

...but they built a tiny boat from scratch, for Ariel & Eric to sit in during "Kiss the Girl"! And they designed and built so many other cool things, including Scuttle's rock perch, and this 3-D grotto that held all of Ariel's treasures.

Best of all, the grotto was set on wheels, and it rotated around to become Ursula's lair!

Other parents helped a lot on this committee, as well. Our school's art teacher made a lot of amazing coral reefs that were so whimsical and cute I couldn't stop looking at them. Tragically, there wasn't room for most of them on stage! However, they ended up decorating the lobby so audience members could check them out as they went into the theater.

Even students that weren't part of the play got into the act; several of the middle-school art students created a bunch of "underwater instruments" and other props to be used in the show...or as further lobby decoration.

I can't take much credit for the look of the play at all; I don't have much of an artistic eye, but I am pretty good at being handed a brush and told to paint stuff. It was fun to contribute to this show, even if it was just a little bit. Because of my teaching jobs, I don't have a whole lot of time left over to give to these musicals, but I really hope I can continue to help out in whatever small ways they need me to.

 

Overall, The Little Mermaid required a ton of parent involvement; more than for any other show the school has yet done. Without the dozens of willing parents, I am positive the show would not have turned out as well as it did. I was so impressed by all the hard work and passion poured into this project. No one received any financial compensation for any of their work; everyone was united in love for their kids and the excitement of musical theater. It was an amazing thing to see!

But even after all the adult help, it was the amazing kids who made the show happen. They worked so hard, and I was simply amazed at how well they all did. They all acted beyond their years; it was hard sometimes to remember that the show features elementary school and junior high actors. I was able to attend part of the dress rehearsal, and it was thrilling to see the skeleton of what the show would become.

And then I went to the dress rehearsal, and my jaw was on the floor most of the time, at how amazing everything looked and how great the costumes were.

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, I didn't get a good recording of any of Celeste's musical numbers. But here is Lorelai's "big number" for the show...it's a song from the Broadway version of The Little Mermaid, entitled "She's In Love." It's a cute, girl-band style song that the mersisters sing when they discover Ariel lovesick for Prince Eric. It is a catchy, energetic, adorable song (the best of the "new" songs from the Broadway show), and I loved the heck out of it. (This is a dress rehearsal performance, so there is some off-stage talking during the first part:)

Another first for this year's play: tickets had to be reserved (they were still free, but needed to be booked online)! Last year at The Wizard of Oz, the crowds were so large that one or two shows was standing-room only. It was a little terrifying! Yet another first: there were four shows this year, an increase from three shows the year before (the first two years only had two shows!).  There were two Friday shows, a morning show for the school and an evening show for the public. Then there were two shows on Saturday, an afternoon and evening show.

 

These two factors led to much less crowded audiences, but it also led to a little burnout from some of the actors. Lorelai (who is not much of a glamor girl), was getting exhausted and impatient from all the fancy makeup and costuming she had to endure for every show.

 Celeste was simply getting tired out, as were all the younger actors (I saw many fatigued faces and many tear-stained cheeks backstage during the Saturday night show!). But they managed to find the strength to pull through, and overall they put together a wonderful show that hundreds of people watched and loved.

Lorelai with one of her BFFs Sydney, who portrayed Flounder

 

I was so darn proud of my girls and all their hard work. I was proud of all the kids who worked so hard throughout the year and put their hearts on the stage for all to see. I was proud of the many, many adults who helped out behind the scenes and during rehearsals, making the show beautiful and memorable. Many of them are personal friends of mine, and it reminded me how lucky I am to have their talents and their enthusiasm as great examples to me.

Check it out! They even made the local paper!

I was proud of the school for being so willing and eager to support everyone in this project. And I was proud of Diana and Cindy, the director & co-director who put their hearts, minds, and souls into every show.

Now, this summer, my girls are waiting to see what musical our school will do next year. It is still a mystery! Diana is not sure what she wants to do next. But whatever she chooses, I hope everyone involved is as satisfied with the results as everyone was this year on The Little Mermaid.