The Middle School play at Concordia generally includes two different plays that are about one hour each. The MS plays are designed to include any student that wants to be a part of the production. Even if the child is shy, he/she can have a part. I love this about the MS play. For the first time during our time at Concordia, the MS Play will include a musical along with a play. Both productions are a spoof on Cinderella. The Musical is Twinderella and the play is Law & Order: Fairy Tale Unit. Emersyn auditioned for the musical, of course. She was given the part of Narrator #1. Her friends, Bella, is Cinderella and Hayden is Narrator #2. Holly Poppell, Emersyn’s teacher from 1st & 6th grade, is the director.
Play practice began in September every Monday and Tuesday for the musical, Twinderella. The play practice for Fairy Tale Law & Order was on Thursday and Friday. After Christmas break, play practices step up to Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday along with Saturdays with both productions working together. Jim worked on the sets. Holly was more than pleased to have Jim’s expertise! Jim was more than pleased to see a workshop with real tools to build the sets. Most of the sets were built on one Saturday by parents. As the performance was getting close, Emersyn asked Jim to come after work as the sets needed a little help. Holly’s husband came by the Rittmann Center after Jim did his fixing. He took one look at the sets and said to Holly, ” I see Jim has been here!”. My parent involvement was the “front stage” helping with ticket, food for late night practices and flowers. My friends are involved parents too, therefore, we were doing it all together to make the tasks more fun.
On Wednesday afternoon before the first performance, a small portion of each play is performed for the school by grade levels. There were three performances this day with practice after school. Emersyn was exhausted by the time she came home.
The performances are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I had tickets for all three performances. For Thursday’s performance, Jim, Eleri and I would be there to cheer Emersyn on for opening night. For Friday, I had tickets for Eleri, Lili and me as Jim had a work dinner. The last performance would be the three of us for the closing show.
On Thursday, Eleri had a high temperature – not in the plan. In addition, I had taken over ticket sales along with Lisa, Kaitlin’s Mom. I had all the tickets at my house and needed to be at school at 11:30am for the lunch time sales. I had to leave Eleri home alone for a couple hours until ayi arrive at 1:00pm. She was fine with it, but I felt terrible leaving my sick girl home alone. She had Roxi and tv!
Thursday was a full day for the Mom volunteers. After lunch ticket sales, work was done on the boards followed by after school tickets sales. Next, I helped Lisa with flowers. Then, Rachael and I went to get Subway dinner for the cast. Before the performance, it was more ticket sales and flower sales. I was glad I was here to help on this busy day of the first performance. Jim stayed home with Eleri, therefore, I was the only one cheering on our performer!
Then, it was time for the first performance!
The play, Law & Order: Fair Tale Unit, is on stage first.
Kaitlin was Cinderella, a detective. She had one of leads in the play.
Erin had the role of Pinocchio (in the red dress and nose dressing). She was excellent in her role and one of my favorite performances.
Sophie was Doc, Josh was Happy and Alyssa was Grump of the seven dwarfs.
After intermission, the Musical, Twinderella, performs.
Emersyn is the first one on stage to open the play and sing. Hayden joins her for a duet.
Bella as Cinderella.
Emersyn and Hayden have a big presence in the beginning and the end. In the middle, “they went out for hamburgers”.
Ending songs…
Performance bows…
Here is a video clip from Thursday night opening performance. Emersyn is on stage by herself introducing Cinderella. No Cinderella shows so she has to add…
[quicktime]http://lyonfamily.tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Adlib_Short.mp4[/quicktime]
Bella had a wardrobe problem. Her dress wouldn’t zip so she missed her cue as they struggled with the dress. Emersyn did a great job improvising.
On Friday night, Jim left his work dinner very early to arrive at the show to catch Twinderella and see Emersyn perform. I stayed home with Eleri watching TV wishing I was watching Emersyn instead. We watched Judy Mood’s Bummer Summer…bummer!
On Saturday, Eleri was well enough for all us to go see the last performance. We enjoyed a pre-performance dinner with the Turkey Gang (the Yangshuo Thanksgiving crew). Every middle schooler except Sean from the Turkey gang was in the play…Kaitlin, Erin, Josh, Alyssa and Sophie (see photos above).
A few photos from Saturday night’s performance. Emersyn wore her hair down since she wasn’t running from school to the production this day.
Here is a video clip of the opening song performed by Emersyn and Hayden:
[quicktime]http://lyonfamily.tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Twinderella_Opening.mp4[/quicktime]
After the performance, I was able to get a few photos of our performer.
Jim made Emersyn’s Cinderella book from a lap top box. I do have to add he wanted to throw the box away, but I talked him into letting me keep it since it is a good box. As always, he uses the box he wanted to throw out! And, as usually, he made an excellent book out of nothing but “rubbish”.
It was a great experience and fun to see Emersyn perform. The last month has been ALL Twinderella so we are ready for Chinese New Year break and some down time!