Hannah's a busy bee

I have been such a bad blogger, between baseball and all the other activities we've had going on, I just haven't had time.

The children at our school had the most awesome experience a few weeks back. Petey and Corey from the Missoula Children came to our school for a week. Every class pre-k through 8th grade had a theater workshop, anything from drama to theater makeup. But the biggest part of their visit was the play they would put on with 60 of our students. Monday afternoon right after school anyone who was interested gathered in the cafeteria for auditions. I know what you're thinking, auditions, scary right? Wrong! Not these auditions. All the children lined up around the cafeteria in height order, then they all went around and said their name and age. After that they went around and said it again, but in an excited voice, and this went on and on. Throughout the process they were moving the kids into different order based on what they saw. Then they sat down all the K-2nd graders, while the older kids continued their auditions. By this point it was pretty clear which kids were going to get the parts, because they were being asked to do additional things. Once they were done with the big kids they came back to the little ones. Their audition was even more of a game, when she said 1 they would throw their hands in the air and say tada. 2 was something like jump, 3 spin around, 4 blow kisses, 5 bow etc. Lucky for Hannah & Elijah, this was very similar to a drill they did in soccer this past season so they were very good at it. When that was done Petey and Corey went around and got the names and numbers of all the children that they chose for parts, the whole process took almost 2 hours. Hannah was among the lucky and got the part of a bee, the only part the K-2nd graders could get. Sadly for Caitlynn and Elijah they were not chosen, it didn't bother Elijah in the least bit, I was actually surprised that he tried out at all. Caitlynn on the other hand was heart broken, she had her heart set on being in the play and had a good cry when she wasn't picked. But she got over it quickly, since she's in 2 other plays in her class, another one in her gifted class and 1 the whole 3rd grade is putting on.

After a short break, the children with the main roles started rehearsal for another 2 hours. Lucky for Hannah being a bee only required two afternoons of rehearsal so she could come home. It had been a long emotional couple of hours and we all needed a bit of down time.

The most amazing part of all this is that in 20 hours of rehearsal time, the 60 kids that were chosen to participate, learned their lines, songs and moves; and were ready to perform it for all of us. That Friday evening and Saturday afternoon we were treated to an amazing performance of Rumpelstiltskin