Many, many moons ago in college (undergrad), my friend Theresa wrote a parody of Little House on the Prairie in which the kids put on a pageant at school and Pa cries proudly at the drop of a hat all throughout the play. I felt like Pa this week when Susan and I attended Valley Middle School's production of Once on This Island, Jr., their annual musical, at the Empire Arts Center in Grand Forks, ND. Our three daughters were recruited by the director Allison Brooks to participate, although they are neither middle school students nor Grand Forks students. Suzanna played young TiMoune at the beginning, a young girl hearing the story at the beginning and retelling it at the end, and a little girl who meets Daniel's son while playing in TiMoune's tree at the end. Abigail and Hillary played young girls hearing the retelling of the story from Suzanna at the end.
When Suzanna, as a frightened child at the beginning, put her face in her hands and sobbed, I started to tear up. When she sang her lines, I teared up. When she spoke her lines at the end with impeccable diction and clarity, I teared up. When Abigail and Hillary joined the other listeners gathered at Suzanna's feet at the end to hear her retell the story, I teared up. I was even proud of all the middle schoolers in the cast, and I don't know any of them! It was a fun production of a great show, and I'm so glad the girls were able to participate.
One of the best parts was seeing all the creative cast gifts made by crafty kids and their parents and left out for cast members to take. So many of them had a tropical island theme. Two of my favorites? The boy who played Agwe [AH-gway], the god of water, covered water bottles with "Agwefina" [Aquafina] labels. Another student hot-glued popsicle sticks to cans of Fanta orange pop so that, reading the can, one would see "Fanta" stick [fantastic].
What a blast!
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