A Colorful Spring

This has been one of our strangest springs yet!  Usually about mid-February, the sun starts getting warmer, the temps start hitting 70, and everything begins its beautiful bloom.  This year, winter has stretched on and on, giving us record rain and snow in the mountains and sometimes colder days than our family in Chicago has!  We know better than to complain in our drought-plagued state, but it has felt tiresome and we're kind of over the rain (which is supposed to continue all week-- we're even on flood watch!).

The literal bight side of all the storms is the almost daily rainbows and spectacular sunsets!

 

 

Blossoms and Broadway

Yes, the play was a tremendous highlight of our year and of Ella's high school drama career, but something that made it ever more wonderful was sharing it with Mom, Dad, and Kyle.  They were the most supportive fans, enduring a visit that actually had very little Ella and Delia in it and going to see the play THREE times!  That's about 7 hours of Pride and Prejudice in 3 days!  The play was the priority, but we managed to squeeze good food, good conversations, church, time for them to meet some of our important people, tours of our school and work places, and Jackbox games into the long weekend also.  Here were 2 non-play things that were memorable as well...

     

Mom, Dad and Kyle's first Almond Blossom!  We contacted some friends and got permission to wander around their beautiful, blooming orchard while we waited for the girls one night.  With the storms that have been pounding us lately, many blooms were already on the ground, but I think that makes it look extra pretty-- like snow.

Awesome Uncle Kyle makes a point of taking each of his teenage nieces and nephews on a special trip or outing.  The timing couldn't have been more perfect that Delia's #1 show was playing in San Francisco the weekend we expected these guests for her play.  Delia was positively bursting with joy when she got home from seeing Six and enjoying a fun dinner of her favorite foods, and a whole day of attention and conversation from Uncle Kyle.  She was on the stage one day and in the audience the next-- these were some amazing days for Delia!  

The Curtain Closes on the Class of 2023

Each production is special.  We've done this 15 times now.  Sometimes there are jitters when we know the pressure of a big part.  Sometimes there is unbridled joy watching a big splashy song or dance number.  Sometimes we never even see our kids, because their role is mentor or backstage manager.  But, every single time we take our seats in the performing arts center for a show, we are able to lose ourselves in the story the remarkable actors of this amazing drama program tell us.  This weekend was SUPER special because one of the Seniors taking her final bow was our own.

Saturday, the day of the Closing Show, started out as a sob fest.  Lots of tears at home as it hit the girls they'd never share a stage again.  It wasn't taking much to trigger the tears, so I went into the show feeling more anxious than usual.  But, the kids are pros.  They locked up all those big feelings for a few hours and gave us Lizzie, Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins, Charlotte, and Lady Catherine.

   

We hollered for their final bow and cried with Mrs. M. as she prayed a special Senior Prayer of thanksgiving and blessing over them.

After the final show, our director invited anyone in attendance who had ever been in a show with one of the Seniors to come on up stage with them for a picture.  So fun to see and stand between both old alumni friends and younger middle school friends.  The past, present, and future of our school's drama program!

Then, it's time for flowers, hugs, pictures, and parties!

Making this weekend of performances even more extraordinary was the addition of Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Kyle to our row of seats!  What a gift to share these memorable times with them!

One last picture with both girls and Mrs. M.  More tears flowed when she made a before-show speech praising Ella for her leadership and faith and saying she's sad to lose her, but confident a part of her remains in Delia, who shows equally strong character, faith and leadership.  Delia said this made her feel SO PROUD.

Megan, a drama friend since 7th grade (who is now graduated college) came back to this show to support her little drama sisters!  She brought Ella flowers and asked to recreate an old picture from her own last Senior show.  Megan has been intentional about remaining in our lives and we love her.  In her relationships with the younger actors, Delia wants to be just like Megan!

We love it so much that for their last show together they got to play sisters!

And a few pictures of all the dearest friends.

Each show has its own vibe.  This particular cast grew super close.  Though everyone in drama is friends with everyone, sometimes there's just a more special connection, a deeper bond, among a group and this production had that.  When you ask Ella what her favorite part of drama was, what she'll miss most, and what makes her most emotional to say goodbye to, it's not the stage or the applause or the acting...it's the people.  I've said before, drama kids are the Salt and Light.  This amazing company of friends and fellow actors surrounding my kids has done so much to shape and shepherd their characters and gifts.

Pride & Prejudice

My heart swells with pride and ardent admiration at the close of this Show Weekend.  Pride & Prejudice was a beloved, but challenging story to tell with 2 hours of dialogue and about a million lines for Ella to learn as she never left the stage.  When it was announced last year that P&P was slated to be her final show, Ella set her eyes on the Lizzie Bennet part-- one of her all time favorite characters.  She got the part and played her with all the poise, effervesce, feistiness and expression that Lizzie needed for Mr. Darcy and the audience to fall in love with her!  We could not be more impressed and proud!  Delia got the part she wanted too!  Appropriately, as Lizzie's younger sister Kitty, a character who Delia loved!  She's silly, flirty, and giggly and Delia also endeared herself to everyone portraying Kitty.

 

There were countless special things about this show, one of them being the show poster/program!  Ella's good friend Ansley drew these portraits of Ella and Nick, the friend who plays Darcy, and the likenesses are astonishing!  We'll treasure this art forever.

As always, Erica, our director's daughter blesses us by taking pictures of the production during dress rehearsals.  Here are a few favorite from a few key scenes.  Above, the lovely Bennet sisters-- Mary, Kitty, Lizzie, Jane and Lydia.  Below, the Bennet family, including their high-strung, hysterical mother and dry, cynical, hilarious father.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  Ella's iconic line opens the show as she elegantly stands on stage while the curtain opens.

Boy-crazy Kitty and Lydia are ecstatic about the idea of an assembly (dance)!

"My dance card is filled for the evening!  And they are all handsome!  And charming!"

At the ball, Lizzie first meets the smoldering Mr. Darcy who insults her pride by calling her "tolerable" in comparison to her beautiful sister Jane.

But, it is the incessantly talkative, exhausting Mr. Collins who takes a liking to Lizzie...and proposes!  (A funny scene that is perfectly played and one of my favorites!)

Lydia and Kitty cook up a dozen ways to find and flirt with the officers.  These two brought the levity to a dialogue-heavy story and they were just delightful!

While visiting her best friend Charlotte (who is willing to accept Mr. Collins' desperate search for a wife), Lizzie gets a few visitors of her own.  Lady Catherine De Bourgh, played expertly snotty by good friend Ruth, to insult Lizzie and tell her she and her family aren't worthy.  And Mr. Darcy who has been brooding in his feelings for Elizabeth and declares his ardent love and admiration for her.  But of course, she cannot accept him because he has mistreated her friend Mr. Wickham and separated her dear sister Jane from her true love, Darcy's best friend Mr. Bingley.

A long letter of explanation makes it all clear to Lizzie.  She was quite mistaken in her prejudice for Mr. Darcy.  And what's more, he's used his own fortune and influence to rescue her silly sister Lydia from a shameful marriage to the scandalous Mr. Wickham!

As she tours his home in Pemberley, she uncovers her own feelings for the complicated Mr. Darcy.  

Lizzie confesses her family will be astonished to discover how deeply she loves him...just as she was.

Anyone who loves the book or movie Pride & Prejudice had their expectations met in this stage version.  Everything was recognizable, most lines taken straight from the book, and each beloved character played with familiarity.  The line memorization was impressive, but the acting even more so.  Ella could not have brought her acting career to a more perfect close than with this story she loves, this character she completely owned, and this cast she'll call lifelong friends.