Ella's & Lia's Performance in Seussical the Musical!

After Lia and Ella had such a positive experience participating in their one-week drama camps the last week in July and received such praises from their director and the owner of the theater, I decided to go out on a limb and ask the owner if she would make an exception and let Lia participate in one more week of drama camp.  The only other week that would work with Lia's busy, summer schedule was the week of August 15th, but the camps offered that week had an age limit of 12 years old for the morning play and 10 years old for the afternoon play.  As a result, I pulled the director aside on our way out of the theater after Lia's play on July 29th and quietly asked her if there would be any way that she would lift the age limit so that Lia could participate a second time around.  After looking at the schedule, she happily agreed to make an exception for "Suessical the Musical" which was the play that had the age limit of 12 years old and told me that she would manually register Lia for the play.  After discussing it with my girls and confirming that they would both love to participate in a second drama camp this summer, I enrolled them a few days later.  Since they were not able to be in the same play in July, they both said that they didn't want me to invite any friends to join them as they were so excited to share this experience together.

After waiting two weeks (that were busy with Girls Camp for Lia and then Priest Lake for all of us), I dropped the girls off at 8 a.m. this past Monday morning to start their daily, 4-hour practice all week long.  After auditioning first thing that morning, Lia was assigned the main role of Horton the elephant and Ella was assigned two roles of Gertrude the girl bird and a citizen of Whoville.  The two girls had so much fun going off to drama camp every morning this week and loved practicing their lines and songs together in the evening.  Both of them learned their lines and the words to their songs really quickly and were totally ready to go on Friday morning when I took them to their final practice.  Ron was able to step out of work to join the boys and me for their performance today at 11:30.  Just like last time, we were all so impressed with this 20 minute production and how fast these children learned their lines, songs, blocking, and choreography.  Ella was such a darling bird and citizen of Whoville and I couldn't stop smiling the entire time I watched her perform.  Lia did such a great job performing in the lead role of Horton.  She had several solo sections in numerous songs and did such a beautiful job singing all of her parts.  It was so fun to watch her in a lead role for the first time in her short, acting career and I was so impressed with her overall confidence and stage presence.  The girls were smiling from ear to ear after the performance was over and I am just so grateful to the owner of the theater for making this exception for Lia and allowing these girls to have this experience together.

The Cat and the Hat, who was the narrator of the play, leading the cast in the opening song of "Oh the Things You Can Think!"

Lia singing one of her solo sections in the opening song.

Ella singing her little solo part in "Oh the Things You Can Think."

Ella singing while Mrs. Mayor and Mr. Mayor fall away from her.

Lia singing with Amazing Mayzie and Sour Kangaroo at her side.

The entire cast dancing away.

Ella, now changed into her Who costume, singing, "Horton Hears a Who," with the other members of Whoville.

The citizens of Whoville singing "Horton Hears a Who."

Lia listening to the Whos talk from the red clover flower she is holding.

The cast walking up to take their final bow after the play is over.

The entire cast all lined up at the end.

Lia singing the finale song after taking their final bow.

Ella posing at the end of the final song.

The group shot of the cast after the play was over.

Lia and Ella posing with their two directors, Ellie and Kaitlyn, after the show was complete!