What the kids have been doing for the last many months and how proud I am of it.

[lisamoe]

The last year or two has been pretty much nothing but drama. But the good kind. I have relatively little of the bad kind of drama in my life, fortunately. It used to just be Jesse in the drama but now the acting bug has bitten Dingo too, to the point that he wants to drop soccer in favor of plays and improv.

So both boys are rehearsing Peter Pan now, for an opening the last weekend of February at Clark Theatre. It only runs 6 performances, so if you want info on seeing it, let me know soon. It'll likely sell out.

Dingo finished up Best Christmas Pageant Ever in December and Jesse singlehandedly ran lights for that one. I was just as proud of Jesse for that as I was for Dingo being in it. I think doing such a good job on a lot of light cues at age 13 was really great. Dingo was adorable in the play too though.

Before BCPE, Jesse was in Annie, which was about the most complicated children's theatre production I've ever seen. I love that director, but she worked those kids like dogs with the choreography and stuff. It was an astounding amount of rehearsing but it came out looking PROFESSIONAL.

This summer both boys were in Once Upon a Midnight Silly in Broken Arrow, directed and written by msbyn and that was pretty cute and funny and the rehearsals were not nearly as intense as Annie, which is good because it was a long drive for us and they both caught mono and had to soldier through the last few rehearsals and all the performances pretty sick..

Before UOAMS, Jesse was in three plays as part of The Emergence Project. It was five short one acts written by teens, directed by teens and cast with teens. There was an adult advisor, but basically the teens did everything from the scripts to the sets to the tech. Jesse was one of the youngest kids in it I think, but he did a super job in all his parts. Only a couple of other kids were in three of the plays, which was the maximum allowed. Dingo also had a walk-on and a song in one of the plays that they needed a few younger kids for.

I think we had some time in spring before Dingo got the acting bug and when Jesse didn't make the Shakespeare play at Clark, but before that he had a big part in Land of the Dragon. At the end of the season, Clark Theatre had an awards party and Jesse won best male performance in Land of the Dragon (he totally deserved it, lol) and also the best male in the Pre-teen Improv Group. He's in the Teen Improv group this year and Dingo is in the pre-teen improv now.

And the Christmas before, Jesse was in Best Christmas Pageant Ever himself. There were some plays previous to that but I actually can't remember that far back.

They also had shows as part of their Homeschool Drama class. In spring Jesse was in I Never Saw Another Butterfly and selections from Newsies.  For Butterfly, the teacher/director taught them a lot about the holocaust and they all went on a field trip to talk to a lady who was a survivor.  I love it when they learn something besides just the acting.  In the fall, Jesse was in a selection from Lost in Yonkers and Dingo did some improv and short comedy scenes for his performance.

And Jesse had a gig this summer playing a newsboy at the opening of the renovated Atlas Life Building.

Besides Peter Pan, they're currently both in Improv, Homeschool Drama, and Jesse is in a directing workshop and is writing a play for this year's Emergence Project.

Whew, I think that covers it. I guess I should be really glad they've taken up a hobby that I love watching, but I had told Jesse when he first got started that he could only do two plays a year because of how time intensive they are. I guess that hasn't really worked out, but I can't tell them no, seeing how good it's been for Dingo's speech and shyness and Jesse's emotional development. So that's what we do now.  Theatre.

Comments

[jorjedatoy.livejournal.com]

hahaha, definitely more than 2 plays per year!! Heck, you're lucky if they're only doing 2 plays at a time!

And does mamaduck still work with them on other school stuff?

[lisamoe.livejournal.com]

Oh, of course. They get regular school stuff, though we're basically unschoolers we try to make sure they meet the PASS standards by the end of each year, which they do. :-) Plus they have Campfire, guitar lessons, Tai Chi and Kung Fu, PE and Dingo has skating and soccer. They had Spanish last semester, but Jesse is still learning it on his own. Whew again!

[jorjedatoy.livejournal.com]

I figured as much... there was just SO MUCH here other than that.