Big River. . .Little Girl
I'm sitting right now in my office at 12:30 in the morning after seeing my daughter in her first high school production. They staged the play "Big River". It's a musical adaptation of Twain's "Adventures of Huckelberry Finn". It's really kind of her first time in a real full scale production.
She's at the cast party right now enjoying herself after a lot of hard work. She was only a member of the chorus for this show, but she told us that it is a fairly big deal because she's a freshman, and freshman usually don't even make the cast.
It's also exciting for her because it's a musical. She's very big into the whole singing thing. The musical productions at the high school are usually done in the early part of the year (Feb/March) by the chior people---and only Juniors and Seniors can be cast. But this gave her a bit of a head start on that. The drama teacher undertook this musical, which is a pretty big project for just the drama department to take on.
But she did seem to capatalize on some talent she had at hand. Of course, there is the reqirement of a black man to play Jim, the runaway slave. And being in a small midwestern town we don't have a real high population in that respect. But she kind of had a ringer. There was a Presbeterian minister in town whose kids had been in some productions. She must have gotten wind of how he could sing and lined him up ahead of time. And man could he sing! That dude has some serious pipes.
I think she also knew where some of the other cast were coming from. The show is a little unique in that it has several strong vocal leads and not much chorus action. Usually with a high school show they try to do a large cast/large chorus with the idea in mind that they want to involve as many people as possible. This goes against that grain, but it meant that you really didn't have a weak singer in the show. And you could balance most of the show on the shoulders of the Huck and Jim characters---and those two sounded great together.
It was interesting for the wife and I too. We were watching our daughter perform on the stage where we first got to know each other. Last night when I got home from work, the wife was fretting a bit. We had tickets for Saturday's show, but it opened on a Friday night. She said, "It just doesn't feel right that our daughter is having her first opening night and we're not there". I felt the same way. We'd sent flowers, but I was antsy that we were all here holding up at home, and she was off setting sail without us. So I sent the wife out to represent for us, and I stayed home with the kids.
Now our daughter has sailed her maiden voyage into the theater world, and of course she's smitten. We had a talk about setting some balanced time management paramaters for future participation. This has taken a lot of time away from her studies and has been a bit of a struggle for her, and without lines to memorize or a whole bunch of scenes to rehearse. So I don't think this will be her last show, but I think this is going to take some real wisdom and guidence.
Her present to the cast is a video she made from footage she shot at rehearsal. We'll be posting that on the vlog soon. Following in her daddy's video footsteps as well.
She's at the cast party right now enjoying herself after a lot of hard work. She was only a member of the chorus for this show, but she told us that it is a fairly big deal because she's a freshman, and freshman usually don't even make the cast.
It's also exciting for her because it's a musical. She's very big into the whole singing thing. The musical productions at the high school are usually done in the early part of the year (Feb/March) by the chior people---and only Juniors and Seniors can be cast. But this gave her a bit of a head start on that. The drama teacher undertook this musical, which is a pretty big project for just the drama department to take on.
But she did seem to capatalize on some talent she had at hand. Of course, there is the reqirement of a black man to play Jim, the runaway slave. And being in a small midwestern town we don't have a real high population in that respect. But she kind of had a ringer. There was a Presbeterian minister in town whose kids had been in some productions. She must have gotten wind of how he could sing and lined him up ahead of time. And man could he sing! That dude has some serious pipes.
I think she also knew where some of the other cast were coming from. The show is a little unique in that it has several strong vocal leads and not much chorus action. Usually with a high school show they try to do a large cast/large chorus with the idea in mind that they want to involve as many people as possible. This goes against that grain, but it meant that you really didn't have a weak singer in the show. And you could balance most of the show on the shoulders of the Huck and Jim characters---and those two sounded great together.
It was interesting for the wife and I too. We were watching our daughter perform on the stage where we first got to know each other. Last night when I got home from work, the wife was fretting a bit. We had tickets for Saturday's show, but it opened on a Friday night. She said, "It just doesn't feel right that our daughter is having her first opening night and we're not there". I felt the same way. We'd sent flowers, but I was antsy that we were all here holding up at home, and she was off setting sail without us. So I sent the wife out to represent for us, and I stayed home with the kids.
Now our daughter has sailed her maiden voyage into the theater world, and of course she's smitten. We had a talk about setting some balanced time management paramaters for future participation. This has taken a lot of time away from her studies and has been a bit of a struggle for her, and without lines to memorize or a whole bunch of scenes to rehearse. So I don't think this will be her last show, but I think this is going to take some real wisdom and guidence.
Her present to the cast is a video she made from footage she shot at rehearsal. We'll be posting that on the vlog soon. Following in her daddy's video footsteps as well.
posted by Will at 10:25 PM
3 Comments:
Congrats to Kitten--she must be very excited! How poignant that it's the same stage where you two got to know each other. :)
As we theater geeks know (and i think it's fair to count you as one of them...), once bitten by the bug it's hard not to scratch that itch. Best of luck helping her find a balance! (i'm still trying to find mine!) ;)
What a talented and motivated young lady you guys have there ... and of course, how serendipitous that she just happens to have two parents who are into theatre :-). Sounds like the start of a beautiful 'love affair' for Kitten. Congratulations to her!
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