He is the Champion!

Matthew has spent the past several days at the Shakespeare competition held at Southern Utah University in Cedar City. I was not ever in theater classes in high school, so it is something I’ve never done, and all my knowledge is second hand. That means that until this year, I thought the competition was all about the performers-monologues, short scenes, etc. But I was lacking information because there is also a big part of the competition that focuses on the tech part of theater-lighting, costumes, etc.

Matthew has been the stage tech light guru since he was in middle school, so it makes perfect sense that he would compete in that category. They know beforehand the set of skills they will need to show, so he has been practicing the process and timing himself in preparation for the event. The Tech Olympics were yesterday and Matthew was the first to compete. His school had tickets to see a show that unfortunately conflicted with the lighting events. They were able to arrange the schedule so that he was first to go, and he only missed the beginning of the show. Unfortunately, he was not at all pleased with his time. The procedure took a full minute longer than his practice times on his home turf and he was pretty frustrated. While he has his own tools, the lighting equipment was not as new as he is used to and was much more finicky than those he has used in practice. And because he was the first person on the line, he had no other times to compare his to, so his only gauge was his normal time practicing at his own school.

After all the official competition activities yesterday, the kids from Matthew’s school held their own homecoming dance. The official school homecoming was this weekend and since they are all out of town, they all dressed up in their finery and held their own homecoming dance. I don’t know how they all feel about it, but it sounds like a fun substitute to me!

The awards ceremony for the competition was tonight and there were some surprises in store. Not only did Matthew take first place in lighting in his division, but he took first place overall! He was completely jazzed about it! Apparently, his time was nowhere near as bad as he thought it was! 😂

This ended up being a good trip for Matthew. His close friends in band all graduated last year and as such, he has been feeling a little bit at loose ends. But he is finding his place in other groups and making new friends. And having his team perform well this weekend (he was not the only one to come off conqueror) made things even better!

Jack of All Trades

This evening was Matthew’s last band concert of the school year as well as his last band concert at the middle school. He has been highly involved in a number of different ways during his tenure at the middle school, and this evening he got to participate in most of them. 

Matthew plays in the advanced band and one of their numbers included a trumpet trio of which Matthew was a participant. He played the first trumpet part and those boys all sounded great! The band teacher presented several awards between numbers. Two ninth grade students are selected as outstanding students in each subject, and Matthew was selected as one of those students in band. He will receive a plaque at the official freshmen awards ceremony but was presented a certificate tonight. His name will also go on the plaque that is hanging in the band room. Matthew didn’t know about this beforehand and was surprised but not surprised, meaning that he didn’t know it was coming but wasn’t overly surprised that he was selected. I’m very proud of him for giving his all in the bands. He loves to play and has made a lot of progress in the past three years.

Advanced band was followed by a slide show, after which Matthew got to book it up to the tech booth to help stage crew solve some lighting issues. It seemed as if they could not get the lights to turn back on and after spending a few minutes in the booth, he jaunted backstage to work the problem from that end. He has been on stage crew for two years and during that time, he has worked very hard and proven that he is smart and responsible. Matthew is pretty much the head of the stage crew this year and more than once he has lamented the fact that once he leaves, the kids left behind are going to have a hard time keeping everything up and running. He has spent a lot of time and effort trying to get the younger kids up to snuff before he leaves but is at the point where he thinks things are going to be very rough next year. 

Once the lights were back in working order, the jazz band played. One of the first things we noticed is that Matthew is looks like the tallest trumpet player in the jazz band. (He said there is one kid taller than he is, but that kid plays kind of slouched over so he looks shorter than he really is.) When he was in seventh grade, he had to stand on a chair to be able to see over the sax players seated in front of the trumpet section, so that is proof of just how much he has grown! Matthew had several solos and although he was not particularly pleased with how he played (he got his braces off three weeks ago and is having a harder time adjusting than any of us thought he would), I felt like he did ok. The jazz band baritone sax player was fantastic though, and after the concert, Matthew shared with us the fact that he was the one who taught the bari sax player the music theory part of improvising a jazz solo. Matthew was really pleased that he had been instrumental in helping his classmate develop such a great skill. Matthew also sang a vocal solo for one of the jazz numbers. It was a Michael Buble song entitled “Everything” and I felt like he did a fantastic job. His face is incredibly expressive when he sings, and he was not afraid to let all the emotion of the music play on his face. Matthew is not one to overshare, so I had no idea that he would be singing this evening. That was a pleasant surprise for me. Of late, he has been singing non-stop, belting out showtunes as he goes about his activities here at home. And I love it. He sang all the time when he was tiny but stopped singing for a while as his focus was on other things, so I love that singing has made its way back into his life. He told us he was also supposed to play trumpet solos in the vocal breaks, but his lips were so dry that he was having trouble playing. It was bad enough that his lips just hurt. He is regretting getting his braces off right before all his end of year performances, but like I mentioned before, none of us knew it would be so tough for him to adjust.

It was a fun concert. Mentally, Matthew is completely done at the middle school and can hardly wait to move on to the high school, but I’m glad he has been so involved where he is and has taken advantage of so many opportunities. He wears a lot of different hats as school and each one has helped him learn and grow in fantastic ways.

In and Out of Character

This past week has been performances of the school musical at the middle school. The show was Disney’s “Descendants,” and Matthew was tickled pink to be cast as Jay, Jafar’s son and one of the leads. As he worked through rehearsals though, he really struggled to get into his character. As a black leather wearing, silver stud sporting, rule breaking, thieving hoodlum, Jay is pretty much the polar opposite of Matthew. As such, he had a hard time internalizing the character. To his credit though, by the time I saw the show, I kept forgetting I was watching Matthew and just saw Jay. And that is quite a compliment because 1) he is my son and as a parent it can be hard to look at your child and see someone else and 2) I’ve seen many middle school productions over the years and to be honest, I rarely forget that the characters on stage are being played by a bunch of fourteen-year-old kids. Adding to the success in finding his character, we heard back from a lot of people that they didn’t even realize it was Matthew for a while because he looked and acted so different from his normal self.

One of the funny things about all this is that some of the mannerisms Matthew developed for Jay have starting leaking through into his actual behavior. I guess that’s what happens when you really get into character. The little things can start to feel natural. He isn’t shoplifting or anything like that (“Stealing-it’s like shopping but free.”-Jay), but he has picked up a few gestures and facial expressions that are reminiscent of an 80’s punk rocker. 😂

This is the first time Matthew has done a really dance heavy show and over the past months, he has come home from dance rehearsals physically wiped out. Dancing like that is hard work and I can tell that he put in his very best effort. He has had no dance training prior to this and by the time the show opened, he was really good. He dances with a very graceful strength. In fact, the way he moves reminds me very much of my brother Seth. I guess there is something to be said about genetics. And the fact that he sings, dances, acts and is smart and nice means he has gained a following amongst the middle school girls. There was much girlish cheering during the show and while some teenage boys really like that kind of attention, it just makes Matthew uncomfortable. Kev and I have both encouraged him to just ignore it and leave any situation in which he feels uncomfortable, but this is still all new to him and it kind of stresses him out.

I think Matthew has had a lot of fun but being on the stage crew as well as having a lead in the musical has had a toll on him these past few weeks. In addition to long dress rehearsals with plenty of notes for the cast, he had been designing the lighting for the show. He has been required to reprogram multiple scenes because the choreographer (who is a previous student who has now graduated from high school) would not tell Matthew what he wanted but then didn’t like what Matthew designed and made him do it again. There was a great deal of frustration involved in that. Bronchitis and a nasty stomach bug have been ripping their way through the cast as well, and Matthew has been doubling masking except for the times he is actually running scenes in order to remain healthy. He has enjoyed his experiences but I suspect he is actually really glad the show is over. He needs some sleep.

"He's a Music Man..."

After four months of rehearsing, preparing, planning, and stressing, The Music Man performances finally arrived. Between being the lead and being one of the head honchos for stage crew, Nathan has pretty much been living at school. But all the work was paid back in full by the enormous performance high that he had going all week. He had family and friends there for all three performances and as an opening and closing night attendee, I can truthfully say that they improved with each performance.

It was fun to finally see all the little things Nathan has been telling us about for months. And as mother of the lead, I got a bit teary when he led the entire cast around the auditorium singing “76 Trombones.” Not that I probably wouldn’t be a huge crybaby even if he weren’t the lead (live theater often has that effect on me), but I’ve got bragging rights this time around and I’m going to take advantage of that. 😉

I think the kids did a great job and I know Nathan has had a fabulous time. He has given the show his all since auditions in January. He’s completely exhausted today, but I have a feeling that he’s going to be rattling around the house for the next few weeks wondering what in the world he’s supposed to do with all the extra time he has.

There’s No Business

This past year, Nathan was on the stage crew at the middle school and absolutely loved it. When an opportunity arose for him to be on the stage crew for our community’s summer show, he jumped at the chance. The middle school drama teacher was heading up the crew and there were other kids from the school involved as well, so it was a chance for him to hang out with some friends as well. There was some drama (on as well as off the stage), a lot of late nights and a generous amount of stress, but overall I think it was a good experience for him. He learned a lot about how a director can cause unity or dissention in a cast and crew, how to work with people who are not terribly reliable, and how to do some super cool things with sets.

The show was “The Little Mermaid,” so Malia thought the whole thing was pretty darn cool. She even got to meet the cast. Malia was so impressed by the whole thing that she has changed her Halloween Costume 5 Year Plan (something she has never done before) and decided she would push Belle’s yellow dress to next year and do Ariel’s pink dress this year.

See the Nathan Photo Bomb?

Nathan will be glad when the whole thing is over. He is a morning person by nature and all the late (late, late) nights are starting to get to him.

Are You My Mother?

I know I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but Nathan has been spending a lot of time at school. He was in the school musical and has been on stage crew all year. The drama teacher at our school (Mrs. Martin, whom the kids just call Martin) has seen him a lot more often than I have in the past four months. In fact, Nathan has spent so much time with her that yesterday he called me “Martin” instead of Mom.

I laughed my head off.

Today he told Martin and she laughed her head off too.

The Circle of Life

When I was a teen, I spent many, many hours at school participating in rehearsals for the school musicals. There were times that I arrived at the school by 5:30 a.m. and didn’t come home until after dark. They were long days, but so much fun. Nathan has followed in my footsteps and since it is school musical season for him, we haven’t seen him much for that last couple of months. Not only is he in the cast, but he’s in the stage crew as well so his hours are even longer than normal. But he’s loving it.

Nathan was very excited when they announced that “The Lion King” would be this year’s show. I may think the story is boring, but the spectacle associated with the show is super fun and Nathan was really looking forward to it. He auditioned and was called back, but when he got home from callbacks he was definitely in a funk. Apparently, he was asked to participate a bit at the beginning, but then was not called on to do anything again. Around 5:30, the teachers looked at him and said, “Why are you still here? I thought we went you home.” Needless to say, he was sure that meant he was not what they are looking for. I explained to him that being sent home early is not necessarily a bad thing. It can just mean that the casting crew already knows where they want you. It may have helped a bit, but he was pretty discouraged. Luckily for him, the drama teacher didn’t waste much time posting the final casting list and Nathan was thrilled to discover that he had been cast as Zazu! In later conversations, the teachers told Nathan that they knew from the very beginning which part was his.

Nathan dove right in, learning all his parts, building sets, creating costumes, programming lighting settings, experimenting with makeup, etc. He was seriously neck deep in pretty much every aspect of the show. And he was having the time of his life!

Last night was closing night. Even though it was a middle school production, I feel like the show was very well done. The kids all did a great job. The music was well rehearsed and well performed. The costumes were creative and appropriate. They had a variety of creative puppets. They even build an elephant! Nathan has really enjoyed himself, but now that the show is over, he’s looking forward to getting a bit more sleep…and he’s already talking about next year’s show.

(So I don’t know any of the pachyderm players, but I was so impressed with the elephant they built that I had to include a picture!)

It has been fun to see him immerse himself in a world that was mine when I was young. It brings back so many fond memories of the productions I participated in, the crazy things we did, the rush that came with performing and the euphoria that came with applause. I hope that his memories end up being as positive as mine are.