Annual NWTL Beaker Awards

The girls and I spent the evening at a Lutheran church downtown celebrating NWTL's third annual, Beaker Awards where they honor the actors and actresses from all of the plays performed in the past 12 months.  Although Ella had to take a break from theater this past school year due to her gymnastics schedule increasing from 12 hours of practice a week to 16 hours, she wanted to join Lia and me at the awards ceremony as she still loves being a part of this theater community.  Since Lia performed in three musicals this past year, she earned several ensemble awards as being a part of these casts.  And, although, she didn't earn any individual awards for performance or scholarship money like she did the previous two years, we were still grateful to attend this special evening and celebrate her accomplishments with NWTL during her junior year of high school.

Lia was called up to the stage six times during the awards ceremony.  She earned the following awards:

Outstanding in Voice for Beauty & the Beast

Outstanding in Dance for 42nd Street

Outstanding in Acting for Honk

Excellence in Dance for Beauty & the Beast and 42nd Street

Excellence in Ensemble for Honk

Ella and Lia posing on the stage after dinner and the awards ceremony was over.

My girls and me.

Although this took place a few days earlier, I wanted to include this event in the awards ceremony post.  Jen and Blair have been the co-owners and co-directors of NWTL for the entire three years that Lia has performed with this theater.  Of the two directors, Blair is the one who everyone loves!  Not only is he an unbelievably talented choreographer who performed on Broadway when he was younger, but he is the most humorous, loving, kind, and fun theater director that you could imagine for children and teenagers.  He is truly the heart and soul of NWTL.  So, it came as quite the surprise and shock when an email was sent out last Sunday night (after 42nd Street's performance weekend had just ended) announcing that he was leaving NTWL immediately to chase a dream project in NYC.  Since Lia had skipped the cast party after the third show to study for an important math test the next morning, she found out from a few friends that the party was still going on at 9:30 due to most of the kids still saying their goodbyes to Blair.  Although I was already in bed, I agreed to change out of my pajamas and drive Lia down to NWTL to say goodbye to Blair.  We arrived at 9:50 and left at 10:05 since Lia still needed to continue studying for her test.  We were able to say a quick and private goodbye to Blair after he left the group of kids in the theater room and came out to the lobby to see us.  It was a sad and tearful farewell for Lia as she has grown to love and respect Blair so much.  Although it is still so hard to believe that Blair is no longer with NWTL, my girls and I will forever be grateful for the years that he was a part of our lives.