Let Me Share This Whole New Show With You

  For Danielle's last year at her elementary school they did Disney's musical, "Aladdin Jr."

Even though Danielle has a few shows on her theatre resume, she gets pretty nervous still at auditions and decided last year that she doesn't like the pressure of auditioning for a main part or the loss of free time that a bigger role would require.  Although even the ensemble roles still require a good amount of time, you don't have to learn lines and the majority of the show's weight isn't carried on your shoulders.  What can I say, the girl cherishes her free time. :)

She auditioned as a dancer and got the role of a lead attendant to a prince.  Which means she also got to dance on the stage for the big group numbers as opposed to dancing on the ground level where you can't see the dancers.  However, due to some bad direction, (Holy crikey, I would not want to direct an elementary show. Talk about chaos.  To the teachers that do it- Bless your little hearts!)  she is blocked by taller people a lot of the time.  They also learned a lot of choreography and then got placed at the back of the stage where all their feet work was blocked.  It was frustrating for her, but she put on a smile, did her best to make it work and still had a good time. 

We happen to have some cute beaded, blue slippers that looked great with her costume.  She couldn't wear them in the dancing scenes, but was able to for a few of the other scenes. 

 I didn't have to spend a dime on her costume.! We were given this dance costume in a bag of hand me downs. What a blessing! Originally it didn't look as Arabic, but with the sparkle and style of the pants I figured I would try to make it work.  The pants fit around the middle and the shirt fit nicely, but the front of the shirt went all the way down to the waist and it had black and white stripes sewn on it that gave it more of a sporty look.  I got out  my seam ripper, removed the stripes, cinched  up the center, combined two larger, vintage buttons and sewed it into the middle.  For the pants all I had to do was fold the extra 6 inches of material into the inside and baste it into place and then made a hem to thread the elastic through.  I was so pleased with how it turned out especially with my minimal sewing skills.  

  She was kinda iffy about the black mesh, but I reassured her she had a unique costume with a texture that could look cool up on stage.  When others in the show saw it, they called her the Genie's attendant because of her blue color and she got lots of compliments.  She wore it with more confidence the next time she put it on. 

She also let me have fun with her gorgeous hair and I gave her a style inspired by "I Dream Of Jeannie". (with the braids around the ponytail, but without the head piece)

Her Dad came and saw her during the day at one of the performances for the students.  He works at night and couldn't make the performances for the family.  Super glad he was able to get this picture of her surrounded by some of the rest of the cast.

A few nights later, I took the kids to see their big sister's show.   We had a great time.  Isn't the music from Aladdin wonderful?!  I grew up watching this movie and playing the simplified versions of the songs.  Llistening to the kids sing the songs brought back great memories.  I don't sit down and watch Disney shows enough anymore.  Although Cassidy, Danielle and I are in the process of watching all the Cheetah Girls movies.  I frickin' caught myself getting teary eyed during the first one when the foster child reveals her secret to her friend.  Pretty embarrassed about that, but not embarrassed enough NOT to tell you. Even though the plots are shallow and holey, I'm enjoying the girl time.

  "We're Cheetah Girls, We're Cheetah Sis-tahs!"

 Getting a seat at these school productions is super duper annoying.  Even though they don't start seating until a half hour before the show, families of the leads and others sneak in and save seats so that when the doors do open there aren't any seats available until you get to the back half of the gym. Even though you were first in line.  I really don't know how they would fix the problem, except maybe having someone on watch to stop the saving from happening.  I also understand how the families of the larger roles would be more entitled to the closer seats, but it still seems unfair to me.  "There are no small roles, only small actors", right?! Everyone is entitled to see their child or grandchild perform. Maybe a main character performance just for the main character's families?  Really, a different facility would solve everything. You know, one with an elevated stage and slanted seating...but that is completely unrealistic Amy.  Most of the people behind us didn't even sit down; they just stood up along the side.  At least that made it so that my kids could stand a bit on the chairs so they could see. 

 Justina got to come see the show and sit with us!  We had a few minutes to kill while waiting around we noticed a few things...

mustaches have such a mature influence on people and 

 

the Prince Phenomenon is not dead, it just goes by a different name, uh er symbol.  Got a kick out of this funny program reference.

A bit of video-it's pretty much crap, but I didn't realize my good camera had ran out of battery juice when I erased all the pictures so that I wold have room to actually record at the show and so I had to use my cell camera:

Peek-a-boo! I see you! kinda...

Aunt Lindsey brought her two daughters to see Danielle perform too.  Love the family support!!! Lucky Cassidy got to sit with them for the show.

It means so much to us for them to come!

Let's pretend that Tyler isn't squeezing too hard and that Benjamin is making that face just to be funny....

Silly! 

She got a bag of treats and Funyuns from her family and Justina brought her some pretty flowers. So nice!

After giving her all to her last elementary school production, I am glad to have my Danielle home after school again.