Seussical Week 11 - Three more shows

 Its crazy how fast time has been moving. When I wrote my last post we had only had two Seussical performances. We've done FOUR more since then. We are two thirds of the way through the run. By this time next week the show will be over. 

I know how finite this whole thing is so I want to capture as much as possible of what it's like to be in the middle of a delightful show like this. But I also know that it's kind of impossible. I'm going to do my best to preserve these memories. 

Let's start with a quick non-Seussical related recap of the week. 

Monday - This was Labor Day and we had NOTHING planned. I slept most of the day. When I wasn't sleeping I was reading. I finished the book All The Presidents Men about the Washington Post's investigation into Watergate. 

I wanted to read this for 2 reasons. One was that I'd just read Katharine Grahams Memoir. She owned the Washington Post during this time and talked about it in her book. So I was interested. The other reason I wanted to read it was because Watergate is a bit of a blind spot for me. 

The break in at the Watergate hotel happened in June of 1972. I was born in February of 1985. So math wise it wasn't even 15 years before I was born. But it was long enough that it wasn't something that I had any cultural memory of. I knew about Watergate, but I really didn't know anything about Watergate. It's kind of like the people who were born after the events of September 11th. They know it happened, but they don't have a knowledge of the timeline or what every day life was like back then. 

But it was still considered a current event part of history and so I never learned about it in any history class. Most of my history classes were lucky to make it to World War II. In my AP American History class we made it to the 1950s and then just watched Forest Gump to catch us up on the rest of the century after we were done with the AP test. 

So I've always wanted to learn more and this was a good time. So I've been reading All the Presidents Men. I like this book, but it has a lot of limitations. It was published in 1974 - before Nixon even resigned. So its a very of the moment book. The book assumes you are up to date on who's who in the early 1970s. Like it will just toss out the names of the people running to be the Democrats nominee against Nixon in 1972 and just assume you know who they are. Maybe in 1972 everyone knew who George McGovern and Edmund Muskie were, but I was literally reading their names for the first time. Even names I kind of recognized like, Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace were only vaguely familiar. 

The biggest example is when the book brings up the "Mining of Haiphong." I was like, "Guys, I don't know what this is. Are we talking about like digging up dirt mining, or like bomb mining?"  The book never explained. It just assumed you knew. (I googled it later, it was the bomb type of mining.)

Overall I liked this book, but I didn't come away from it feeling like I knew the full story of Watergate (partially because when it was published in 1974 the full story of Watergate wasn't even over.)

I immediately went looking for another Watergate book. I found one called "Watergate: A New History."  I'm reading it right now and I LOVE it. It was published in 2022 so there is 50 years of material to draw from for this book. And the author understands that not everyone was alive in 1972. So he EXPLAINS things. Like in All the Presidents Men they talk about the ITT scandal. They never once spelled out what ITT stood for because they just assumed everyone knew. In this new book he takes the time to spell it out as International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation.  Simple things like that make a huge difference. 

So Monday was a relaxing day for me - which made it all the more confusing when I had my biggest hive breakout in a while on Monday. I had them on my knuckles, on my stomach, and on my legs. I swear these things make no sense. 

The kids were doing a few things on Monday. Derrick mowed our lawn and then wanted to go to the lego store and see if there was anything to buy. Lydia ended up buying a big lego tree house. (I forgot to get a picture.)

She had extra leaves so Veronica used them in her Jurassic World lego layout. Veronica has been benefitting from Derrick's love of Dinosaur legos. Basically all of Derrick's money lately has gone into dinosaur legos. He'll get the set, put it together, and then be like, "well that's that" and start thinking of the next one to buy. Meanwhile Veronica is like, "Thank you very much." and takes the put together legos and puts them into her layout. 

Here are the fall leaves around the visitor center. Charlotte and Lydia bought the visitor center at our lego store back in June. 

Here's a helicopter pad. 

Lots of exhibits. 

There's even a campground. 

Okay back to what was supposed to be a quick recap. 

Tuesday - Veronica had a dentist appointment in the morning so I took her to that and then took her to school. Later that morning I had a therapy appointment and we had a long talk about what could be making me break out in hives even on a rest day. A lot of it probably has to do with my body not feeling safe when I'm resting. Like I feel like I have to be doing things to make sure that everything will be okay. And maybe that was true when I was younger or when I had little kids, but now I need to know that it is okay to rest. Which of course I understand in my head, but try telling my nervous system that. It's been on CONSTANT VIGILANCE since I was a kid. It does not just calm down by telling it to calm down. 

And then I had work. Which is also pretty much in CONSTANT VIGILANCE mode lately. We've added two new therapists over the summer and then one of our students graduated and is now licensed. Plus we have a bunch of new students starting. Things have become more busy. I'm realizing that I need to plan on spending more time at work too keep up with it all. 

That night we didn't have a show or a rehearsal and that felt really weird. I spent a lot of the evening watering the lawn really well. The weather has cooled down so now the grass just needs like one good water every week. And this was a good time to do that. 

At some point this week I also finished reading Harry Potter book 5 to Veronica. It's a good thing she's seen the movie because we kept getting stuck at very intense parts of the book, but we were able to se the book aside and focus on Seussical because she already knew what happened. 

Wednesday - I went into work because I'd taken Monday off. I felt like every insurance payment I worked on had like 500 side quests. It was a busy day. 

I also decided that this was the day I'd find a new Primary Care doctor. I'd been replaying the conversations with my Doctor in my head for a week and I was like, "You know what. He's nice, but I don't like him as my doctor." He was trying to learn more about perimenopause so he'd ask ME to tell him what I liked about my Hormone Replacement Medications. And I guess it's great that he was curious, but shouldn't HE be explaining them to me? I was just so sick of a doctor that didn't understand that perimenopause is more than just night sweats. 

So I asked in my ward's ladies group chat for a primary care doctor recommendation and two people told me a place that only sees women. And so I called them after work and got an appointment. I said, "It's not an emergency, I just NEED to know that I have a different primary care doctor." So I got an appointment for October. 

When Brandon was off of work we met up at the DMV to get the title turned in for our Blue Van. That title has travelled more than some people. First my brother ordered it and it went to our cousins house in Utah. Then my cousin mailed it to me. I signed it and mailed it to Germany where Billy and Becca signed it. Then they mailed it back. And Brandon and I finally took it to the DMV in Idaho. 

We've had a "held in county" title ever since we bought the van in January. It was good for one year. So we still had time to get the title figured out, but it's nice to know that it's all done now. The Idaho title came in the mail on Saturday and I was FINALLY able to cross it off my list. 

That night the young men went bike riding on the dirt trails around Auger Falls. The young women made a fall treat. Derrick went to his activity with Brandon. My girls just stayed home. I went grocery shopping with Charlotte because I wouldn't have time on Thursday. 

Last week I forgot to tell about what the young men did for their activity. They played kick ball. The bishop sent me a video of Derrick. Derrick was the pitcher and he rolled the ball to one of the boys. The boy kicked it and it went right back at Derrick. Derrick caught it and the boy was out. Its a cool little video for a lot of reasons. But my favorite thing is seeing Derrick play with boys his age. He was right there with them. I LOVE the boys in our ward. They are so good with Derrick. 

Thursday was Veronica's picture day. Later we compared 7th grade pictures. We look very much alike. 

That morning I went to work right after dropping Veronica off. I worked for two hours and then went to  Chattertown therapy to help with some complicated billing stuff. Andrea is so good at billing now, so when she's stuck, she's really stuck. On some things I was like, "I don't know what to do." But on other's I was able to get things figured out. 

I'd actually been working on some unpaid claims Aspen Grove and had kind of figured something out right before going to Chattertown. Then Andrea was showing one of her unpaid claims and I was like, "Oh my gosh, these guys have the same insurance as the person I was just figuring out at Aspen Grove!" And then I remember a headline I'd read about how Blue Cross of Idaho wasn't paying claims for a lot of the school districts over financial issues. So I found that article and was like, "Here's what's going on!" When I went back to work at Aspen Grove I found out I had SIX clients affected by this thing. 

I left work around 2:00 and was hoping to get in a nap, but there was just too much to do at home. So I drank a Celcuis mix in and got to work. 

I did the dishes and then made pizza dough for dinner. I took a shower and started getting my hair ready.  

Yep that's right. We had a show on Thursday night. 

The kids came home and Charlotte and Lydia worked on curling each other's hair. Veronica took a shower when she came home. 

We turned on the Seussical Soundtrack on Spotify so we could have a refresher on the songs. 

I started doing my show makeup. 

Brandon put together the pizzas when he got home. 

At 5:15 me and the girls drove back to the Orpheum. We finished getting ready. At 7:00 the show started. 

We had a small audience, but they had a ton of energy. They were laughing more than our Friday or Saturday audiences did - combined!

I remembered, "Oh this show is FUN!"  By the end of the first week I'd been kind of sick of the whole thing. (And also for real sick because I had a cold.) Now I was rested, feeling better, and having a great time! 

That Thursday show has a lot of good memories associated with it. I can't tell you any specific moments or anything. But the whole thing was a delight. 

At the end I realized that my friends, Amy Toft, Amanda, Colleen, and Jori had all come. It was great to see them. Jori told Veronica that she was so fun to watch on stage. 

On Friday Charlotte woke up with a really bad pain in her side. She'd had it all week, but this morning it was really bad. She could barely breath. She said she had had a hard time sleeping because it hurt so much. She was near tears.

With a little help from Dr Google I figured out that she probably had a muscle strain from all the prop lifting she had been doing. I gave her 800 mg of ibuprofen and had her sit on the couch with a ice pack. I told her, "If I took you to the doctors that's probably all they would tell me to do." Let's see how you are doing in an hour. 

Derrick and Lydia went to the high school and I took Veronica to the middle school. Instead of going straight to work I came back home to Charlotte. 

She was felling a little better, but we decided she was going to stay home the whole day and rest. She was like, "I don't want to miss orchestra."  And I was like, "Um could you even play without pain today?"  And then she was like, "I don't want to miss welding."  And again I was like, "could you even do it without pain?"

So she was staying home. 

We also talked about all the props she carries. Most everything is on wheels, but there is a part where she and Lydia carry out a wooden podium. That podium seemed to be the culprit. So I texted our Stage Manger Danica and asked if we could rework that part since Charlotte was showing signs of muscle strain. 

Danica talked with our directors and they decided to switch out the podium for a similar shaped thing with wheels. That was much appreciated. 

And with a whole day of rest Charlotte's side was feeling much better. She was able to do the show without any problems after that. 

Though we did have fun imagining what would happen if we'd had to put Veronica in the Thing 1 costume. The height difference between Veronica and Lydia would have been comical. And Veronica would have nearly died wearing a skirt. (She was still coming to terms with the pigtails.)

I did make it into work around 11:00. I was hoping to only be there about 90 minutes, but it was more like two and a half hours.

And then it seemed like it was time to start working on hair and make up again. 

Brandon made BLT's for us for dinner. Those were yummy. And then we were out the door and going to the Orpheum. And getting ready in the dressing room. And the show started at 7:00 and we did it all again. 

I took some more pictures to document my hair and makeup. 

I felt like I was getting pretty good at this.

And LOOK how big my hair is. At one point I was joking, "I realized no one pays any attention to me on stage. I'm sharing the stage with The GRINCH, The LORAX, AND CINDY LOU WHO. I'm nobody."  And my friend Emily said, "That's not true. You have Wigasus. That's pretty impressive."

The show was really fun again. And we had good laughers in the audience. There was one male laugher that us cast members were having a debate about who it could be. Some of us thought it was Ivan. Other's thought it was Crayson. When the show was over we realized it was Ivan. Crayson came on Saturday and was also a good laugher. 

Some of my favorite moments are the back stage moments. A lot of us enjoy lipsyning to songs when we aren't on stage. Veronica is so fun to watch as she lipsyns to the whole Biggest Blame Fool song. Charlotte and Lydia do a hilarious routine to the beginning of "All for You."

Solla Sollew continues to be a special moment. At the beginning of Act II most of the cast is on stage. The Who's aren't though. So as everyone else leaves I'll tell them, "See you in Solla Sollew" because that's when we come upstairs again. 

One night when Veronica was done with her cadet scenes she burst into the dressing room and announced, "The threat has been neutralized."

Brandon and Derrick went fishing that night while we were at the play. They had a good time together. 

On Saturday we slept in until 10:00, but we couldn't sleep much later because we needed to get the house put back together. My sisters Emily and Hillary were coming that night to see the play. 

So we cleaned up the living room, and the family room, and especially the bathrooms. 

I think I took a nap at some point. All the kids took showers. Then it was hair and makeup time. 

Emily arrived about 15 minutes before we had to be at the theatre. It was good to see her for a minute. 

We had chili and baked potatoes for dinner. 

As we got ready for the show it was really fun to know that we would have family in the audience. Emily was there with her girls Juniper and Hazel. Hillary came with her boyfriend. And Brandon was there. This was the first official show Brandon would watch. They all sat in the balcony because that's the best place to see me and Veronica. (We spend like half of our time on stage at the very back of the stage.)

Here's a random back stage picture of me and Charlotte. 

I wish I could remember specific things about this show. But really they are all running together in my head. Honestly, its a good thing that nothing stands out because that means nothing went wrong. 

After the show it was so fun to see my sisters. Emily took a picture, but hasn't sent it to me yet. 

We came back to the house and had ice cream and talked for hours. The funniest moment was when Hillary was talking about someone and she said, "I didn't like her. She was allergic to Magenta."  There was kind of a pause and I explained, "Magenta was our cat."  Hillary's boyfriend was like, "Oh that makes so much more sense."  We all laughed and laughed at how he was thinking that someone was allergic to a color.   

At 12:20 Brandon was saying something and then he was like, "You look upset are you okay?"  I was like, "no, I just realized it was 12:20. I need to go to bed."  So we all went to bed soon after that. 

On Sunday we slept in a bit and then Brandon made french toast for breakfast. I made syrup from my raspberries. We had fun talking and relaxing for a long time. Juniper had fun playing with all of our toys in the basement. 

On a normal Sunday our church starts at 1:30 so we would have had all morning free. But this was Stake Conference. We always watch that on Zoom. But I didn't turn it on. I was like, "the stake statictical report is not as important as talking with my sisters." 

Around 2:00 we had hamburgers. We ate on the patio. That was really nice.  

And a little after that we went to Diekies lake. It was too cold to swim, but Hillary and her boyfriend walked around the whole hiking trail - stairs and all. We met up with them and went to the Hidden Lakes. (That was a short hike, but it nearly did in some of us.) Then Hillary and Brandon and Derrick did some fishing. Emily and I sat on a blanket and talked. 

And all too soon it was time for everyone to start leaving. It was so sad to say goodbye. I'm so glad my sisters made the effort to come see the play. It meant a lot. 

We went back home and kind of wandered around the rest of the night. We were all in denial that Monday was the next day. 

But we were also all a little excited because we had another show on Monday. But I'll write about that in my next post. 

Thanks for reading. 

Seussical Week 10 - First Two Shows

Here is the post about our first two Seussical performances. I'll be adding in pictures that were taken during our dress rehearsal. 

Friday September 4th was Opening Night for Seussical. Way back when I was deciding if this was something we really could do I'd looked at the school calendar and saw that Friday September 4th would be a half day of school. I was like, "Oh we will survive!"

So that day I gave the kids a choice to go to school or not. Charlotte and Lydia chose to go to school because they had some tests and other things they didn't want to miss. Derrick and Veronica chose to stay home. 

I was hoping to only go to work for about 90 minutes, but I ended up there for 3 hours because we got an electronic remittance advise thing that was a mess. It took me over an hour to get it all untangled. I was home a little bit before the twins. 

Charlotte told us that she had been in Orchestra and had been the score keeper for some games they played that day. She'd been standing very confidently at the front of the room. She said, "before Seussical I would have been trying to stand very small because I was uncomfortable in front of everyone. But now I just took up a lot of space because I'm used to that now."

THAT IS WHY THEATRE IS SO IMPORTANT.

It was nice to have some time in the afternoon to chill out before getting ready for the show. Brandon came home from work and made pizza. 

I started doing my makeup around 4:00. At 5:15 we left to drive to the theatre. The kids all told me they were nervous. I could understand why. This was our first show!  But I wasn't feeling that nervous. We'd already done this show so many times that I was feeling pretty good about it.  

We spent the time from 5:30 to about 6:45 getting ready. I did Veronica's make up and then changed into my costume and finished up my makeup. (My dress has a small neckline so I don't do my nose makeup until I'm in my dress.)

Charlotte and Lydia did their own make up. 

There was a lot of energy in the dressing room. People were talking a little louder and faster than usual. 

Around 6:50 it was time to go upstairs and get into our places back stage. 

Charlotte and Lydia unofficially start the show. There is always a recording of Jared's voice saying, "Welcome to the Orpheum Theatre" and then a reminder about not recording anything and taking loud children out of the audience. Charlotte and Lydia went out and did a pantomime during that part. Lydia pretends to take a picture and Charlotte SLAPS her hand. And she really slaps it. We could hear the sound back stage. We heard people in the audience laugh.  

Then Charlotte and Lydia came back stage and the rest of the cast went on stage and took our poses. Veronica and I stand toward the back. She stands on one of the platforms and I stand in front of her. She rests her arms on my shoulders. 

The show starts with Jojo coming on stage and seeing the Cat in the Hat's Hat. The Cat in the Hat jumps out from the box and begins singing "Oh the Things You Can Think" the rest of us come to life when she says Seuss and we begin to dance. See the box on the stage. Charlotte and Lydia come move it out of the way after this.  

It's a really fun song with a lot of different formations going on.

Charlotte and Lydia are all over during that song. I had no idea until I saw this picture that they are behind me and Veronica in this part. 

The song ends and we get going on the story. The story starts out with "The Jungle of Nool." We have an LED wall that has pictures on it and we also bring out the panels that Charlotte and Lydia painted. A lot of the story is narrated by the "Bird Girls" who are something of a Greek Chorus. 

The story of Horton Hears a Who kicks off with Horton hearing the Who and then the Sour Kanagroo coming out and singing that He's the Biggest Blame Fool in the Jungle of Nool. 

I'm back stage for this song, but all of us back stage join in on the singing when we are saying things like, "Did you hear did you hear did you did you hear" And "Talking to a speck to a speck to a speck of dust." It's a really fun song to sing. 

After that song Horton gets to learn more about the Who's in the song "Here on Who"  Veronica and I are in that song. The panels also flip around to be the Whoville scenes that the twins painted.

Here we are.

We have a tiny solo in this song. We sing together, "Picture the tiniest houses and grocery stores." We aren't mic'd but we are loud. Nate says he can always hear us. 


Veronica has a moment in a band.

The Grinch and the Lorax as also in Whoville. Here's the Grinch talking about the time he stole Christmas. See Cindy Lou Who with him. 


After that song Mr and Mrs Mayor tell Jojo to stop imaging so much and to take a bath. Here's the tub that Charlotte and Lydia painted. 



Jojo imagines the tub is a pool with lots of fish. All the little kids come out and dance with fish. 


But Jojo's parents don't like that. They send Jojo to the military. Here is Veronica as one of the Who Cadets. 


Horton and Jojo have a beautiful duet called "Alone in the Universe." They sing it really well together. In our family it is significant because it's basically the one chance Charlotte and Lydia have to go downstairs during the whole show. They usually run down and touch up their lipstick and then run back up. 

Then we switch back to the Jungle of Nool. Gertrude the bird with a one feathered tail sings a song about loving Horton. She plays a ukulele during the song and Thing 1 and Thing 2 hold her music for her. They have a whole bit about holding it too high at first.  We have a whole theory that Gertrude is the only person besides the Cat and the Hat and Jojo who can see the Things. 


Her ability to see them comes up again during the song when she goes to get a pill that can make her tail grow. The Cat is the doctor and the Things are the nurses. The things try to block the doctor, but Gertrude pushes them aside. 


We switch back to Horton during the song Chasing the Who's. Back stage there is a lot of traffic control going on. 

Charlotte and Lydia have to maneuver the helicopter into position so I stand guard so little kids don't wander into their way. Then we ALL have to remember that the Monkey's run around behind the stage so we have to stand up against the walls to stay out of the monkeys way. 

Then we have to remember to stay out of the helicopters way as it come off the stage. 

And finally the Who's can get back on stage for when we are reacting to Vlad the Eagle taking the clover and then dropping it. 

When the clover is dropped the Things grab it. They move it around and the Whos pretend that we are falling in slow motion. It's fun. 

The cat takes the clover and sings a whole song. The curtain closes and we rush to get the clover field ready. Veronica and I help Charlotte and Lydia with the panels. Charlotte and Lydia roll out a carpet with lots of little pink puffballs on it. It's always a scramble to get that ready. 

Then they stand holding a few puff balls. When the curtain opens again they throw the puff balls in the air and act like they got caught and run off. It's so quick the camera couldn't take a clear picture, but you get the idea. 

And here is Horton's "Oh No" moment when he realizes just how many clovers their are. (What he doesn't know is that the way our play is staged his clover isn't even there. The Cat takes it off stage.)

So Horton is looking for his clover and then Mayzie appears in a nest high in a tree. 

She sings a song to convince Horton to sit on her egg so she can take a vacation. The song is accompanied on stage by the cat with the two Things holding the piano. 

And then Horton agrees to take care of the egg and sits on the nest. Let's all take a moment to appreciate how cool this tree turned out. Horton is suspended in air on this tiny little tree. Thing 1 and Thing 2 come out as Hunters and kidnap Horton. 

Then the Cat comes out and pauses the action and sings a song to close out Act 1. The Whos show up for this song to - I think so that little kids don't spent all of intermission worried about us. 


We have a 15 minute intermission and then the story begins again - for everyone except the Whos we don't come back on for like 30 minutes. So we are just chilling out in the green room. 

Horton gets carried across the sea, he's sold to the circus, there's a whole segment with the circus animals. A lot goes on, but I'm not on stage so I'm not going to take the time with pictures. 

Horton and Jojo have another duet with Solla Sollew. This song is lovely. All the animals are on stage singing in the background. And the Whos (who were never actually taught the song) are all singing backstage. It's one of my favorite parts of the show. It's such a pretty song. The girls are all saying that one day they will sing it to their kids as a lullaby.  Here it is if you want to listen to it. 

Solla Sollew is also one of Charlotte and Lydia's only breaks. They have a little spot back stage behind where the box and the helicopter are stored. They sit in there. Sometimes they jump scare Veronica when she walks by. Sometimes I'll come upstairs and find all three girls sitting in the little space.

By the end of the song all the Who's are back stage waiting for our entrances. And Charlotte and Lydia are ready to move the tree off. But during most of the song we are still and singing. In a crazy play like Seussical the slow song really has an impact.  

The curtain closes and Charlotte and Lydia go get the tree. Meanwhile Veronica and the other cadets go on stage for "the Butter Battle." The whole military part of this play is a little silly. They had to make it something not scary. So the battle is between people who butter their bread butter side up and those who butter it down. 

Jojo decides the war is stupid and runs out into a mine field. There is an over the top explosion sound. And she is presumed dead. 

The explosion goes on for something like a minute because the little Who children need time to run off and get their sashes off and then join the Who adults on stage for Who Christmas. 

Here we are at Who Christmas. 


The Grinch reenacts the Christmas Tale with the helpf the children. 

Then the kids go off stage and then come back on stage as Cadets again. They are bringing the sad news that Jojo has been killed. 

Everyone is sad - especially the Cat in the Hat who comes out crying over the top tears. Then the Cat calls for a reenactment of what happened. Charlotte and Lydia come on stage holding dolls and mime actions as the Cat talks. Then Lydia throws her Jojo doll off stage. I'm in the wings and I catch the doll. As we do that, real Jojo stumbles onto the stage. 


There's a slightly scary scene with the "Huntches" which are people dancing in sheets. 



But then Jojo realizes its all in her imagination. The Hunches take off their sheets and throw them off stage. Charlotte and Lydia catch the sheets and then bring them back stage. Me and two other ladies frantically fold the sheets before the backstage gets crowded with the Hunches coming back to quick change into their Jungle Animal clothes. 


Then we enter into the final scenes of the show. Gertrude shows up and explains that she has found the Clover for Horton. (The girls and I have theory that she's figured out it never went into the clover field and the Cat has it. We imagine Gertrude finding the Cat and threatening to feed the Things to a lion unless she gets the clover.) 

The Whos come back on stage to show that we are just fine and so is Jojo. 



Everything seems great, but the Monkey's show up and the Sour Kangaroo and Horton is told he is under arrest and going back to the jungle for trial. 

There is a high energy court case where everyone is on stage and singing. It's really fun. At one point Veronica is freaking out and so she shakes me by the shoulders. It's funny. 

And then we are saved by Jojo's great YOPP. Everyone can hear the Whos. As soon as that is resolved Horton's Egg hatches and reveals its an Elephant Bird. 

My favorite lines of the whole show are when Horton worries about how he can raise a bird. Gertrude tells him, "I have wings and I can fly. You teach him earth. And I will teach him sky."  Those lines made me tear up when I saw this at Buhl High School earlier this year and they continue to pull at my heart even now. 

And then the show is over, we sing a reprise of Oh the Things you Can Think and then leave the stage. 

Charlotte and Lydia are some of the last people on stage for Oh the Things you can Think. I never see what happens, but basically the Cat in the Hat gives them to Jojo. Sort of like, "I've been training a replacement. Here are your Things. Have Fun."  Then Charlotte and Lydia leave the stage and Charlotte RUNS around behind to enter first for the bows song. I'm back stage saying, "Charlotte's coming, Charlotte's coming" to try to get people to make room for her. 

She and Lydia come out and do a funny little hand slapping hand shake and then everyone else comes out. 

We all come out and sing "I do not like Green Eggs and Ham" enough of us know enough of the words that it looks like we all know the words (but we do not!)

And then we do bows. Whos are up first. 


Followed by a bunch of other groups. Charlotte and Lydia get another bow toward the end. I think only Jojo and the Cat bow after them. 

And then we all get on stage together and join hands and bow some more. The music ends with one last "I do not like green eggs and ham" and we all run out to the lobby. 

The lobby is so fun. On Friday night Jori was there with her family. She loved the show. 

Charlotte and Lydia said they were asked 3 times if they were really twins.

I saw a lot of my friends and it was great to hear complements on my hair, my dress, the set, etc. 

When the lobby cleared out we went downstairs and changed. Veronica and I took off our makeup, but Charlotte and Lydia left theirs on. Then we all went to Applebees for dinner. 

Here I am with the girls.  

We were at a booth with Andrea and Jeremy and our friend Nate. We had some fun conversations. The three girls all got hamburgers. I actually had a bit of a cold and so I wasn't super hungry I had wanton tacos. They were good. Then we ordered Lava cakes and Charlotte and Lydia split one and Veronica and I split one. 

The play had been over before 9:30 and we were at the restaurant around 10:00 that was so wierd. We were out of there by 11:00. 

I'm so glad I was able to sit with Andrea. I was like, "We DID it!  We were in a play together with our daughters!"

We came home and expected to talk with Brandon, but he was already asleep. So we talked for a little bit longer and then went to bed. 

On Saturday we all slept in. At some point I took Derrick over to Nicole's house so he could mow her lawn. That was probably the most productive thing I did all day. 

In the afternoon we all took showers and started doing our hair again. I have a HYPE playlist I put together for us on Spotify. We had fun listening to that as we got ready. 

And at 5:30 we were all back at the Orpheum with nervous excitement. Here's a random dressing room moment.

My cold was a little worse and I was feeling a little done with the whole play. But I was still excited to perform for an audience. This audience laughed a little more than the opening night audience so that was nice. 

The show went well - which was nice, but that doesn't make it very memorable. So there isn't anything new to say about it that I haven't already said. 

Our neighbors Grace and Jim came to see the play. Grace is from the Philippians and has absolutely no concept of Dr Seuss. Brandon gave her the book Horton Hears a Who to read to help prep her. We wondered what she would think. She said she liked it a lot. So even a complete Dr Seuss novice enjoys the show. 

Brandon went to the store and bought ice cream and made brownies. After the show we invited Grace and Jim to come over. Brandon's friend Mike was also at the show so when I saw him in the lobby I told him to come over too. It was fun to hear their perspectives on the play. 

And then it was time for bed because we were tired. 

On Sunday we slept in. I told Brandon I didn't want to do makeup, change into real clothes, or even wear a bra on Sunday. So that meant I was staying home from church. The other kids stayed home as well. We were all just pooped from our long week. 

On Saturday Charlotte had been telling me, "Mom I hope you don't mind, but I just want to be alone on Sunday. So please don't bother me." I told her, "You are assuming I'm leaving my room on Sunday. I don't care what you do."

And I didn't leave my room much. I spent a lot of time writing about tech week. 

But we all actually hung out together on Sunday night. We just sat in the living room and talked and joked together. Derrick has really been missing all of us so he really needed that time together. 

I've been saying that we are taking a break from theatre for a year after this. But we were all riding the high of the first week so during that conversation we were talking about all three girls maybe doing Jump Company's production of Madagascar. Or maybe me doing Something Rotten with Dilatants. But I think that's all just pie in the sky thinking. The only thing for sure right now is that Veronica is doing Addams family with Ovation. And possibly Brandon will do Three Musketeers in June of 2027. But we have a strict NO SETs moratorium for the next year. 

We still have SEVEN more shows to do, so we are hardly close to done with this thing yet. We'll see how we are feeling when we are all done. 

Thanks for reading. 

Seussical Week 10 - Tech Week

Well we have survived Tech Week and out first two performances. I'm exhausted, but my heart also feels really full. This show has been so special and so fun. I'm so glad we have made it to this point. 

I'm hoping to capture some of the special moments and feelings in this post. I know I will fall far short. So let's start with a favorite quote that sums up how I feel about community theatre. This is from Bruce Springsteen's memoirs.  In talking about performing with the E Street Band he says:

"It's based on the principle that we bring our best, everything we have, on this night, to remind you of everything you have, your best. That it's a privilege to exchange smiles, soul and heart directly with the people in front of you. That it's an honor and great fun to join in concert with those whom you've invested so much of yourself in and they in you, your fans, the stars above, this moment, and apply your trade humbly (or not so!) as a piece of a long, spirited chain you're thankful to be a small link in."

I'm so thankful to be a small link in the community theatre chain and to help be part of Seussical. It's even better to be part of this with my daughters. I have loved watching them step into the roles given to them and to become more confident in themselves in the process. Theatre is incredible. 

So I'm going to recap our experiences. This will cover one incredible week from Monday August 31st to Sunday September 6

Before we get too far, lets back up and remind everyone of just how much time we'd already spent at the theatre. We had been there Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the week before. Then we had a break on Thursday and Friday. Brandon and I were back at the theatre on Saturday for a wedding. Then we were all back at the Theatre on Sunday for Load In. And then tech weeks started when we were at the theatre from 5:30 to 10:00 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday followed by shows on Friday and Saturday. 

I made this meme during tech week that summed up my feelings. 

It really started to feel like we were living the same day over and over and over again. That means my memories kind of all run together. But I'll do my best to separate out what happened on each day.

At the beginning of the week I had the great idea take notes about each day so it would be easier to do this post. That lasted all of one day. But Monday feels like a month ago so I'm glad to have those notes. 

In the morning I put the paper plates and bowls up in the cupboard along with a sign reminding everyone to use those this week. We just wouldn't have time for dishes this week.

I still had work to go to all week. So on Monday I went to work after dropping Veronica off at school. I was kind of sleepy and not really thrilled about being there. I looked at my to do list and realized that I was supposed to be working on Credentialling paperwork for one of our newly licensed Social Workers. I love everything about my job, but I like credentialling significantly less than the other parts. She wasn't scheduled to come in until 11:00 so I figured I'd get the paperwork ready about 10:30. 

Well she showed up at 9:00 and I was like, "Oh your here! Let's get this going!"  And that was the shot of adrenaline I needed. I was wide awake after that. And I was able to get everything turned in to the insurance companies that day. That was a good feeling. 

I came home and took a small nap. I'd been hoping to practice doing my make up before the kids got home, but I'd run out of time. So I never really had a good practice with the make up. 

We went to the theatre at 5:30. No one had to have makeup on Monday, but I wanted to start getting used to it all. So I started to work on Veronica's make up. I figured that was the best practice we were going to get. I also pulled her hair back into picktail for the first time. The whole thing wasn't as good as it could be, but it was a good start. 

I didn't have time to do my make up because we were called upstairs early to start the cue to cue rehearsal at 6:30. I did take pictures of the platforms that had been painted by my friends Casey and Emily on Saturday. I was so sad we'd have to step on these every night. 

They were so cool looking. 

The cue to cue rehearsal usually involves the whole cast learning how to move various set pieces so everyone was on stage for the first little bit. But gradually more and more people drifted downstairs because really the only people moving anything are Charlotte and Lydia as Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

I stayed close by in the wings because Charlotte and Lydia were actually feeling pretty overwhelmed about how much they had to do. The full weight of how much of this show rested on them was becoming apparent. They had kind of a hard time articulating that. So I was there to get kind of loud and bossy with Nate as he was directing things. 

For example, Nate wanted the twins to move out the big triangle panels for the first Jungle of Nool scene. He wanted one moving the panel on one side of the stage and one moving the panel on the other side. The problem was immediately after that the twins were supposed to bring out the pool for Horton. There was no time for the one twin to make it around the stage for that pool. So I came out and said, "Wait that doesn't work." And explained why and then Nate assigned one of the panels to Lola who is our back stage tech person. She moved the panel out and there was time for the twins to do the other and then bring out the pool.   

I started saying, "I am the Mother I speak for the Things." It was kind of a lighthearted reminder that they had two 15 year old girls responsible for so much of this stuff. We got everything figured out and the girls were feeling better about their responsibilities. Within the next few days they had everything down to a science and didn't feel overwhelmed any more. 

As we figured out where things went Lola would come out and put little marks on the stage to mark where to set things down. Those were very helpful.

We started to go through the whole show. And things went well for the first night of tech week. There were times we had to stop what we were doing while other people figured out sound or lighting issues, but mostly everything was going great for a first night of tech week rehearsal.

Honestly, the bigger problem was the people who DIDN'T need to be back stage. During all the other rehearsals we'd been allowed to go out into the audience to watch the show when it wasn't our turn on stage. But now we were expected to either be back stage or downstairs in the green room or dressing rooms. Some of the littler cast members (and big ones too) still wanted to watch the show so they were hanging out in the wings and getting in the way. I started assigning myself as a traffic controller during certain parts - especially when the big set pieces were involved. 

There is a part of the show where Jojo starts imagining that there are lots of fish swimming around. All the kids under 12 come on stage holding fish and do a dance. It is adorable. The fish had never officially been assigned to specific kids, but the kids had all unofficially assigned themselves specific fish. This led to a few hurt feelings when the kids didn't get the fish they considered theirs. Two kids at two different times had a lot of tears over fish drama. Eventually Kerri and some other people got the fish situation figured out and there isn't any more fish drama. But on Monday there were a lot of big feelings about the fish.  

We finished the show but we didn't have time for notes. So Nate put them on our communication app - band the next day. We were able to go downstairs to change and take off make up. They gave us enough time to do that and still leave by 10:00 that was really considerate. 

Tuesday was a little bit of a harder day to get going. I dropped Veronica off at school and then went to a doctors appointment. My sister Hillary had recently been diagnosed with Hereditary Hemochromatosis (thank you google for helping me spell that.) She got it from both our parents so there was a high chance I also had it. So I was talking to my doctor about that. He had me do a blood test and my iron levels all came back pretty normal so its not a concern right now. But it is something to keep in mind. 

I came home and got the yard watered and then took a small nap. I went to work in the afternoon and got a lot done. It was the first of the month so I had to mail statements to people with a past due balance. I was able to get everything printed and about half ready for the mail. But I didn't have time to finish everything so I knew I was coming in again on Wednesday. 

I came home and took a shower before the high school kids got home. I worked on my hair. I was able to get it curly on the bottom and teased on the top. Here I am with the headband that goes with my costume. 

Charlotte and Lydia worked on curling their hair for the rehearsal. I'm so glad Hillary taught them how to do this. 

 

They ran out of time so they had to bring the curling iron to the theatre and finish their hair in the dressing room. I had two totes that we had all our stuff in. I'd tried to keep one for make up and one for hair. I'd hoped that we could leave the hair one home and leave the make up one at the theatre. But we were quickly realizing that both totes had to come home and to the theatre every time.

They finished their hair and then started working on make up. Here's how they looked by the time they were done. I took this picture and then sent it to the Baconsale Podcast. On the show that week they'd done a small joke about what if there was a Dr Suess expanded universe. One of them had said, "I'd like to talk to you about the Seussical Initiative." So I sent this with the caption, "Thing 1 and Thing 2 would like to talk to you about the Seussical Initiative." That got a laugh reaction from them. 

I did Veronica's make up and then attempted mine. This was the first time I'd ever done it and looking back now it's a mess. But it was a good start. My friend Alexandra is in charge of make up and she told me what to fix and then helped with my contour. She also put false eyelashes on the sides of my eyelids. I've never worn eyelashes in my life so that was fun for me. 

Here I am from another angle. I was also trying out my dress for the first time. 

I also did Veronica's make up and did better at that. At some point during the show we realized that she should wear her Cadet Sash the whole time. It really pulled her whole costume together. We figured that she had joined the Who military earlier than all the other kids so it made sense that she had her sash on the whole time. 

She still needed ribbons for her hair so I sent Laura a message asking about those. I took a picture of the bows on  "Little Lydia" as an example. Yes, we have two Lydia's in the cast. My Lydia and Rachel's Lydia. I never knew another Lydia until we got involved in theatre in Twin Falls. There are FOUR Lydia's in the theatre community. Mine, Little Lydia, a teenage Lydia who was in Cinderella with us, and Jared and Emily's youngest daughter is also a Lydia. 

Rachel is Cat in the Hat and her two daughters are Who children. Lydia is 10 and Claire is 7. They hang out with us a lot when their mom is on stage. They adore Veronica and love to play with her.

I think it might have been this night but one night there was a conversation among the kids about Middle School. Lydia is in 5th grade so she was asking some of the other girls about Middle school and they were helping her feel less worried about it. These girls don't know it, but I know that they are making some pretty strong bonds here. Veronica, Lyla, and Peyton already are all in middle school together. Lydia will be there next year with them. They are all also going to be in High School together. So I was listening to their conversation and thinking to myself how this was the start of something really special. Will they all be best friends? Probably not. But they know each other well and that's important.  

The same thing was happening among the adults. I knew everyone by name by this point and we all had fun talking as we got dressed and did our make up. This cast has been really fun all along, but there's something about the long hours in tight spaces that really strengthens friendships during tech week.

I was beginning to also have favorite moments back stage. One of them is when the tree first comes out. I'm around to hold one of the curtains in place so it doesn't get dragged by the tree. Mayzie gets into the tree and then Charlotte and Lydia unlock the wheels and move everything into place. Mayzie looks like a QUEEN high up in the tree.  I love it.

I'm trying to come up with a memory about that nights rehearsal performance. But I can't come up with anything. We were having a great time and everything was going well. That's good, but kind of boring. 

We did have time for notes that night so we sat in the audience and Nate said things to improve, but really there wasn't much. He had to be pretty nit picky to come up with anything at that point. Then we were let go to change and take off make up. 

On Wednesday I was able to share one of my favorite memes with everyone on Band. 

  I had the day off - sort of so that morning I made sure to take a nap after everyone was at school. Then it felt like I was in Go Go Go mode the rest of the day. 

I joked that being in a play is also like being assigned a scavenger hunt on the side. I had a list of things I still needed to find. The most important was a belt for Veronica. We'd planned to have her wear one of Brandon's canvas belts, but then we realized it was too big for the narrow belt loops on her pants. So I went to DI and found a cloth one that could squish into the loops. 

Then I went to Walmart and got breath mints, safety pins, and little velcro patches. 

And then I went to work and finished mailing statements and a few other little tasks. 

Back at home I sat down with all the make up to practice the who make up again. My biggest issue so far was the super dark eye brows. We were doing them with a black makeup that had a really crappy applicator. I was like, "I'm super good at doing my eye brows with my eye brow brush. I should just use that."  So I did and it was a game changer. My eye brows went from looking like caterpillars to looking like well defined brows again. 

I also followed Alexandra's advise about where the yellow eye shadow should go. I this result so much better. 

It was so fun to look like a little cartoon person.

And here I am with my hair down. So FUN!

I washed the makeup off and then did it again at the theatre that night. But I kind of regretted that. It had been so easy to put on the make up in my well lit kitchen with lots of space. It was really stressful to do it at the theatre. All the mirror space in the greenroom was taken so I had to do mine in the dressing room with people walking around everywhere. Plus I also had to do Veronica's make up. So I decided that I would do most of my make up at home and just add the nose at the theatre after my dress was on. I did that the rest of the week and it worked well.

But the fun was only just getting started. My sister Hillary had been working on a hair topper for me. She'd mailed it and I got it in the mail that afternoon. So that night at the theatre was my first chance to try it. The result was incredible!  She'd matched my hair color perfectly. and since my costume included a headband I could hide the seam between my real hair and the topper. 

Look at all the volume in the back! There was no way I could get this much volume with my own hair and even if I could I did not want to have to tease my hair for 9 shows. 

I called the topper "Wigasus" after the name of Granny's wig in the Crood's 2 movie. Though mine doesn't fly.

So many people were asking my how I got my hair to be so big. I'd laugh and say, "It's fake" and then lift it up a little bit. My favorite response was from Lyla at the end of the night. She asked me how I did my hair and I told her it was fake. Then I unsnapped the clips and took it off. It was like I removed half my head. She was so shocked. It was funny!

I also gave a lot of credit to Hillary. I kept saying, "My sister is a hair wizard."

Okay I'm actually slightly ahead of the story. So we need to back up a little. On top of everything else going on, Veronica had auditions for Addams family that afternoon. So at 5:00 Brandon took her to the Ovation building on Blue Lakes and was there for her audition. Then he brought her to the Orpheum. She already was there when me and the twins got there at 5:00. 

When we were all ready we took a group picture. So much work had gone into getting us to the point where we all had costumes, and make up, and good looking hair. 

Once again I'm trying to remember the specifics of this rehearsal. And once again I can't think of anything out of the ordinary. This show had come together so well. I kept thinking about how in Cinderella we were still trouble shooting the dresses and the moving set up to Thursday. And with this show it was already all figured out. 

Honestly, I was tired this night. I was like, "This is the night I got sick of the show." All the novelty was wearing off and the week was just feeling long. 

At the very end of the night when we we were doing our final song and bows the cast of Young Frankenstine came into the theatre through the door that connectst the top of the balcony with the rehearsal room on the third floor. They all cheered and clapped super loud for us as we did our last song and our bows. It gave us a much needed boost. 

We had a little "makeup parade" where Alexandra walked by and made sure everyone's make up looked good." Then we did notes in the audience and then we left to change. 

Brandon showed up at the very end. He'd made handles for the tree so it was easier for the girls to move it around. He was there to paint them. He also oiled the wheels on the box so that it wouldn't squeak. I talked to him for a second and then started walking away to take the girls home. I called over my shoulder, "I love your Brandon." Just then Brenden, who plays Horton, walked by. He heard me and gave me a strange look. I laughed and said, "I'm talking to Brandon. I love you too Brenden, but not that way." It was funny. 

On Thursday I was feeling the effects of the long week and starting to feel a little sick. So I'm pretty certain I came back home and took a nap after dropping Veronica off at school. I was tempted to work from home, but honestly it was easier to go into work. But I just wore a hoodie and sweatpants and didn't wear make up. (Doing my makeup once a night was enough.)

When I was done with work I went grocery shopping to get a few things. I took a shower and got my hair curling and did my makeup. 

The kids came home and Charlotte and Lydia started curling their hair again. (They'd taken showers on Wednesday night so they needed to redo the curls.)

Again they didn't have enough time so they had to go to the theatre with the curling iron and keep curling hair there. 

For some reason we had the cast photo scheduled for 6:00 so everyone was rushing to get their hair and make up done by then. But it was just kind of impossible. The people in charge were like, "The case photo will be okay in whatever you are wearing." But the cast wasn't too happy about that. 

At 6:00 we were told to stop what we were doing and get upstairs for the photo. There were a lot of disgruntled people about that. Charlotte and Lydia were among them. One had her hair done, but no makeup. The other had makeup, but her hair wasn't done. Neither were in their costumes yet. Many of the cast members were in similar states. 

What made it worse was that as soon as we got on stage they started mic checks and we were told that those took priority over the cast photo. So then we were just standing around in a state of not ready-ness. Charlotte and Lydia went back downstairs to at least finish the hair for the twin that needed it. After 15 minutes of mic checks we finally had the cast photo. I think everyone in the cast was thinking it was the worse cast photo ever. 

I think this is the closest we got to having major drama on the set of this production. We've never had that many people annoyed at the same time during this show. 

And others must have agreed because at the end of the night we took a second cast photo when we were all in our correct make up and costumes. And this really should have been the plan all along because it turned out so well. 

Here are my selfies from the night. 

I was loving my hair. 

Here's a picture I took of Veronica goofing off with her bandalo at some point. 

 At one point Charlotte and Lydia were saying how hard their roles were because they had to move so much stuff. Veronica, in all seriousness, said, "My part is hard too. I have to wear PIG TAILS!"

This was our dress rehearsal night so Brandon and Derrick came to see it. Derrick had a really hard time, but he stayed the whole time. I'm glad we didn't try having him watch the show when it was a real performance. 

This was also a memorable night because Kelly and Carol who play Mr and Mrs Mayor were not there! Kelly had to go to the hospital. It ended up being nothing thank goodness, but no one knew it that night.

So my friend Andrea stepped in as Mrs Mayor and our music director Cameron stepped in as Mr Mayor. Here they are holding the script as they worked through one scene together. 

Andrea is the type of person who THRIVES on last minute pressure. So she was having a great time. She later told me it was the funnest night of her life. 

She also loved that she was able to hug her own daughter Capri when Jojo is reunited with her parents. 

My favorite part was when Cameron got a little bit of a comeuppance. As our music director he had been harping on us Whos about the correct timing of our "We are Here" lines during the court room scene. Well guess who didn't come in correctly when he was in the cast for that part? It wasn't as simple to do as he thought. 

But really he and Andrea did great stepping into those roles last minute. When we did our bows at the end of the night everyone in the cast gave them a huge round of applause with lots of cheering. 

We had a few notes and then we were able to go home. We'd done everything in basically the same amount of time as a real show so we were done well before 10:00. In fact we were home and talking with Brandon and Derrick before 10:00. That felt really strange. 

And I was going to go right into talking about our first two shows. But this post has taken long enough. I'll publish this one and then work on the next one about the shows. 

Thanks for reading.