Meet The Troops

Sunday, April 3, 2011

The Jungle Book

Okay, now that we are all (mostly) moved into our new place I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures that, I know at least all the grandparents, have been waiting for. And for those of you waiting to see pictures of the new house, those will be coming soon! :)

Joy had the opportunity to be a part of The Jungle Book musical over here a couple of weeks ago. The Missoula Children's Theater came to Post and put the whole thing on. She really enjoyed it and is looking forward to doing something like that again in the future. They did auditions, put the show together in just 5 days and had 2 performances...Having directed shows with children in the past, I was pretty impressed with what they accomplished in just a few hours a day with these kids in one week.

There were about 75 kids that showed up and auditioned and one of the first things they did was have everyone line up tallest to shortest. Guess where Joy ended up out of 75 kids ages 5 to teenagers? The VERY END....She was the tiniest one there! LOL! I told her that's where I've been all my life in those types of line ups and pointed out that the good part was, it made her really easy to find in all those kids! :) She didn't seem to mind much and was proud to tell all of those in charge that she was indeed 6 1/2 even though she was shorter than all the 5 year olds. :)

I know that pictures aren't the same as seeing the real show, but they'll give you a good idea of what she did. She got the part of a leader monkey and enjoyed some fun singing and dancing and saying a few lines with her group several times in the show. Here are a few pictures from one of the rehearsals....

Each of the kids had to bring a bag to put their costume in and use for their street clothes during the show. We made hers a pretty gift bag with her name and monkey # on it, one that she could easily spot when they lined them all up on the stage to pass them out after they had been filled. Probably unnecessary and a little silly, but totally something my parents would have done back in my show days. I remember all those fun little things and it always made me feel special and got me excited about the show.  :) 


Here she goes to change back stage all by herself, costume bag in one hand and lunch in the other. Parent's weren't allowed to go backstage at all, so she was on her own, so grown up! They did pair up each monkey with an older cast member to make sure that they got all their zippers and velcro done alright, but still.....I couldn't help! It was so strange to just send her off like that.


But she did great, here's our little monkey!


They did dress rehearsal without the make up, then added it afterwards before her two performances.


Here she is with some fellow monkeys that she made friends with that week.  :)


She is the monkey on the far right end...



This is still dress rehearsal, so no make up on anyone yet. She's sitting in the front looking up at 'Baloo the Bear'.  :)


She got to do lots of singing and dancing, so she was right at home up there!


This was one of her favorite parts....At the end of one of their songs, 'Monkey See, Monkey Do!', they posed like this and said "BAANANAAA!!" Now she and Joshua still say it all the time and it brings about fits of giggles every time!  :) 

Since she was a leader monkey she got to come on stage a few extra times, which she loved of course! :) One of those times she had to run out and save a few other monkeys from 'Kaa' the evil snake. 

The monkeys sang a couple of other songs with the rest of the cast too and she is still singing them all through the house. 


It was a fun experience for her, and it was exciting for me too to get to be the Mom this time and not have to be involved in the show as a teacher or director like past shows she's been in. It was great to be able to just enjoy her performance and much more relaxing! LOL!  :)


Joshua was so excited for her and couldn't wait to give her some roses after her performance.


Some of our dear friends, The Gowan's came to see her show and they gave her the cutest gift... and so appropriate for a monkey! It was a bunch of bananas with a giant chocolate bar all wrapped together with a pretty bow! She loved it!  :)


It was a little bit crazy doing this the week we were moving but I'm so glad we did!  :)

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