Auditions

Today was the first day of auditions for our upcoming play, "Holly," and we had a pretty good turnout of hopefuls.  By the end of the two day process, we had about seventy-something hopefuls, and that's not including the people that auditioned at Gwinnett's campus.  As you can see here, Madison was auditioning, and she was towards the later portions.  She was full of courage, stepping up and facing the bright lights and reading certain parts.  Later on, she read those same parts with other potential cast members, and she completely surprised us.  She's been on stage for a time with us, and there are certain levels of expectation that Daddy has, but there was something more to her performance, so much so that she wound up auditioning for a part that was even greater than what I expected.  To make it more fair, Daddy isn't the one that will be casting this person or that.  But here's the deal:  she was impressive, so impressive that today's audition and the following one in front of the director both earned her a part in the play.  To begin with, the thinking was that she'd be with the Gwinnett cast, doing the play down there on that stage with others.  But there are many factors that go into casting for a play.  We'd all be happy if she was in Gwinnett, but in fact she'll be delivering her lines on the Gainesville stage.  It sort of went back and forth with the auditioning talent as to who would be doing what and where, and of course who just barely missed a spot on the stage.  We're not quite there with casting, still lacking a few actors for this position or that.  But right now, Madison is in, and we're all very proud of her.

She's giving up martial arts the next few weeks, and giving up the next belt ceremony.  But she's been wanting to do this, and we're excited to let her be a part the entire full play experience, from all the practices to tech week to the day of the show itself.  This is bigger than any middle school play though - this is on the stage at the Gainesville campus, and subsequently in front of the world.  This is put on the internet, and it will be the Sunday before Christmas.  So it will be a pretty amazing thing, one we're all very excited to be a part of.

These auditions went on for a while today, as most tend to do.  But we did get home in time to have some fun.  For example, we made our usual batch of pumpkin cookies for the pumpkin carving party tomorrow.

We were going to have that party today, but the auditions were going on, and the weather was just not ideal for that sort of thing.  It was a yucky day outside.  But inside, it was nice.  We had a few themed movies playing, "Mad Monster Party" and "Coco."  We weren't huge fans of "Mad Monster Party," as it seems pretty long, and drags on in places.  But "Coco" is an amazing movie.

Tonight we were in bed earlier, as tomorrow is a big day.  We read from our Star Wars book, and we said our prayers of course.  Tomorrow is church, and then the pumpkin carving party here.  Lots going on this week, and it's all pretty exciting.  But today was a big moment, the start of Madison's involvement with a huge Christmas play, something we haven't really done with her yet.  She's been a lamb or sheep frequently in these productions, so she's been on stage quite a few times in the Nativity Scene.  But this time, she's right there in front, with speaking parts.  She's not the star - she's just one of the orphans on stage.  But she's got some fun parts, and I think she'll really enjoy it!