And..Scene!

Summer 2012 was all about the stage. The girls were in theatre camps and stage performances for nearly 10 weeks and when they were not being trained in acting/dancing/singing they were creating their own drama at home. Or at least one of them was--Audrey girl.

Tweendom and hormones hit hard this summer and while Audrey learned so much at these camps and had fun (at some of them), the end of the summer show took a turn for the worse.

Cast as Mowgli in a performance of Jungle Book which Audrey had to audition to get in to the performance camp itself, was a bust. She auditioned in May and waited on pins and needles until the camp kicked off the middle of August.

Day one she was devastated feeling she was sold a bill of goods. Her fellow actors were not what she'd expected as one struggled with reading, another with focus, and some were stage shy. While all of these things are perfectly acceptable and not appropriate to judge, she (and I) had believed this to be a group of kids with some acting training and therefore, she was going to close the curtain on summer with a smashing show. 

Not so much. Several things threw her off that week (she fell hard on the pavement the first night that camp kicked off and still has a scar to prove it (nearly 2 months later) &  she was very bruised and scratched up as a result), her grandparents (whom she had not seen in a year) flew in the night before rehearsals kicked off and she was sent to practice for 6 hour days in a town away while we all got reacquainted, the role was quite physical as a snake and a bear and more pulled and poked and prodded her and she did not know these kids at all until that week. Needless to say, she spent the time before and after rehearsals crying. And apparently during. She did not eat. She was always in the bathroom with an upset tummy. 

Eric, me, my parents, and Olivia cheered her on. We came up with mantras, we spoke about not letting people down as she was the "lead", we drilled in to her, "Wilkinson's are not quitters." All our efforts were in vain. The morning of Day 4 the theatre called and said it was time to remove her from the play.  

She was so relieved. My emotions remain mixed. It was one hell of a week.

But the summer was not a total bust by any means. She did play a sweet Sandy in Grease,

Grease.
 Broadway Bound~ July 2012

A darling teapot in Beauty & the Beast

Beauty & the Beast.
Broadway Bound~ July 2012.

and she glowed as Gertrude McFuzz in Seussical.

Seussical.
Village Theatre, Everett. July 2012.

For now, we're simply staying out of the jungle.