Curtain Up, Light the Lights

For the past month, our two oldest grandchildren, Booker and Lena, joined 80 other kids at Rowlett Summer Musical Camp, each day learning songs and steps for their parts in a production of The Wizard of Oz. They came home excited (and sometimes exhausted), eagerly showing off their dance moves.  Both kids had watched the movie multiple times, as well as The Wiz to get in the spirit of things.

This weekend came the payoff for all their hard work - six performances of the musical by three different casts at a high school auditorium. Older kids got the plum parts of Auntie Em, Miss Gulch, the Cowardly Lion, The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, Glinda the Good Witch, the Wicked Witch of the East, and of course, Dorothy. Other cast members were trees in the forest, crows bedeviling the Scarecrow, monkeys and palace guard, as well as the Mayor, Coroner and the Great and Powerful Oz. Our two budding thespians got two parts each: Munchkins and Ozians, who appeared in several places during the 90-minute show. Booker was one of  of The Lollipop Guild, as well.

With recorded music and minimal scenery, all the kids did a fantastic job. Of course, we were almost entirely focused on our two, who were totally into the experience, singing, dancing, gesturing and using facial expressions to great effect. It was great fun to see little Noah's reactions as he pointed to the characters on stage . Lena enjoyed putting on stage makeup each time, but Booker wanted no part of that! They both loved joining hands with their cast mates and bowing to the audience at the end to great applause.

I'm sure this won't be the last time the two of them take the stage, but it was exciting to see their first time under the lights. I'm trying to picture Noah being disciplined enough to do this in a couple of years. Hmm, maybe not.

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