In this Secret Garden......of Mine

Well, the show concluded Sunday afternoon, and what a wonderful weekend it was.

Rachel did a fabulous job as Mary Lennox--I was so proud of her, for her poise, her timing, and that terrific British accent she maintained from the opening of the show to the closing line (above). I did not realize so many people attended the performances based on the number of compliments we received on her. I'm starting to wonder if this might be a case where there were 200,000 people that claimed "they were there" when an event occurred in a stadium that holds 40,000 lol. Rachel performed the role Friday night and Saturday night, and realizing that I'm just a proud, biased parent, I thought she did a truly magnificent job acting the part. She worked SO hard on it, for many weeks prior to the performance, both at rehearsal, and at home (or my office), running lines, working on acting and blocking and cues, and generally treating it as a professional role for which she was obliged to work hard. And she did. Often when we ran lines, she would, just for the fun of it, recite Dickon's line, or Colin's line, or Mrs. Medlock's, just for fun before doing her own. That told me she really knew her stuff.

Anyway, it was a great weekend. My Dad, Mother-in-Law and Father-in-Law all came in for the show, and were not disappointed. Our Lady of the Valley may be an elementary/middle school, but the shows they put on are much better than you would expect from that show. The director, Mike Bridges, and the two wonderful ladies who assist him, Donna Corneil and Dava Fant, put their heart and soul into it. The lighting is good, the sound guys do a terrific job, and they try, best they might, to make everything the same quality as you might see anywhere around town.

I have mixed feelings on what they did this year with the show. They took the 18 "lead" characters, and double-cast all of them, with one "lead" playing two nights, and the other "lead" playing one. That gave 36 kids opportunities to have more of a role in the play, which is a great thing--but it also limited the actual time on stage rehearsing for any one of the individuals. With Mike and Donna there with scripts ready to whisper a cue, it works, and realizing that it is "merely" a school play, that's probably the right thing to do. I would've loved to have seen this play, though, with all of the leads getting full rehearsal time with it. It was an excellent play as it was, though, and I have no complaints.

It's back to normal (thank goodness) now, with "free time" available. Rachel will begin going to dance again; an activity she basically lost for the last two months during rehearsal. Basketball season has begun, but that will merely occupy 2 hours of her time a week now, and when she arrives home, there will be no more running lines for an hour or two. It's a joy to be in a play, but it's also a joy when it's over to relax and regain some free time.

For me, it's back to work. The last two weeks I'm involved fairly heavily in doing whatever publicity I can do for the play, taking and printing head shots, with captions, cropping, etc., taking cast photos (for souvenirs), taking photographs and/or videography during the play (photos dress rehearsal this year, video the actual performances), and even making a couple of "props" this year--old photographs blown up to 11 x 17 that came out wonderfully.

I'm taking a quick early lunch break to write this, as I haven't done much of it lately and don't want to let this go, but I probably should get something to eat and finish up. For now, I'll continue to be content that"the memories and miracles are ever so fine in this secret garden.....of mine."