I won’t lie. This week has been super duper tough. Tom had work crises, I had work crises, the kids started dress rehearsals and I was/am scheduled to be backstage to help from Wednesday through to the final show. I can’t complain that much. The kids start their day at the theater at 10am; I only have to be there at around 12:30pm (when rehearsal with the whole cast begins). While they’re doing their thing, there’s a bunch of parents doing finishing touches to the set and the costumes. There’s a lot of chaos — kids who are still missing entire costumes, even as of this afternoon (and first performance is tomorrow night!)! Kids panic when they don’t have their stuff. Frankly, I panic, too, wondering how on earth this is all going to get pulled together in time.
I’m officially on “dressing room” duty (meaning, I help the kids get in and out of costume), but Chloe gets underfoot a lot. Poor thing. If there’s any indication that this really is very exhausting for her, it’s the 2 meltdowns she had today followed by her sacking out on the way home (by the end of the day, she’d completely peeled off her leotard and was just sitting in her car seat in her undies).
It’s also been pretty tough on Cameron. She was “too tired” to walk to the car herself today. I, of course, had my arms full of all sorts of stuff: stinky shoes, their box of extra clothes, 2 water bottles, 3 lunch bags, Chloe’s dress…oh, and Chloe, too! So, I left her there on the wall while I took all of the other stuff to the car. Of course (as has happenened with Cameron before), another parent (this time the director) noticed her crying and all by herself and then went off to look for me. Of course. Someday, CPS will call and I won’t have any answers.
Anyway, on the upside, Cameron is, in fact, a soloist Princess! She wasn’t initially cast as one–and she was, initially, disappointed enough in the initial casting to ask about the possibility of being an understudy (not for a soloist princess but for a mersister)! I think it was after the first week that she was “bumped up” to understudy for one of the soloist Princesses (for a little girl who broke her arm). Then, she was an understudy for any of the soloist Princesses…and, now, suddenly, she is one of the them! I’m very, very proud of the hard work she has put in to get this role!
She totally took this whole soloist princess thing in stride. The day that she was told she would be one after all, she just casually mentioned it to us only at bedtime!
Dylan is also not without his triumphs. He’s in the “advanced” group of dancers and gets to perform many of the dances at the front of the stage.
Now, let’s talk about Number 3 for a second. We’ll see if she actually makes it on stage! She is overwhelmed by the number of kids in rehearsal (there are 37 in the production), so she does ok in morning camp where there only about 5 kids, but she tends to melt down quickly in the afternoon.
Yesterday, she wouldn’t wear her leotard or jazz shoes and the only costume she agreed to wear was the Princess dress. I explained to her that she had to wear the proper costume if she wanted to be on stage, but she didn’t want it enough to change out of the princess dress.
Second day of dress rehearsal brought improvement in some areas. She was enticed enough by make-up (we put lipstick and foundation on the kids today) to put her leotard on and wear her hair in a braid, AND she was in a good enough mood at the start of full-cast rehearsal, that she even put on one of her costumes! This one here, is for “Under the Sea….” I had to snap a picture because this may be the only time we see her in it! She even made it to the stage!
Sadly, she wanted to go on stage for “The Contest,” but she got poked by a pin and that pretty much undid her for the rest of the afternoon!
Anyway, we will love whatever she chooses to participate in come show time!
