Living Our Adventure: Mary Poppins

I am ridiculously behind in keeping this blog updated. Social media took over and it's where most of the updates happen these days, although even that has become difficult at times too as the kids have gotten older. But there are some moments that deserve to be documented. If only for me or close family.

Our local high school is a pretty amazing school for theatre. Nationally recognized, and a perennial ITF performer. Evan got to experience that as a 5th grade munchkin in The Wizard of Oz and even moreso as Pugsley in The Addams Family in 6th grade. There is nothing that brings me more joy than cheering on my kids in what they love to do. Evan is a natural born performer and was a joy to watch in a bittersweet and fun role.

Fast forward to his freshman year and the theatre plans to do Mary Poppins as part of their schedule. For previous productions with kids, the auditions were always live but this time around the director asked for preliminary video auditions for the child roles (Jane and Michael Banks). Connor is very outgoing and loved seeing Evan on the stage, so he jumped at the chance to audition for Michael. I might have struggled to get the music timing right while also trying to record, but Connor, true to form, starts a capella and runs with it. We sent it in before Christmas then kind of forgot about it during the holidays until we got an email to come in for a callback audition in person. The rest is history. Our little dude, at just 9 years old, had his first BIG role in one of the best high school theatres around. Evan was so excited to call me with the news as soon as he saw the cast list. AND he would share the stage with him as both the funny parkkeeper and the everyman success story (not featured in the Disney movie) - Northbrook. They even shared a couple of scenes together that warmed my heart.

Putting on a show like this for a big audience is no joke. I added up all the rehearsals over a two month period and it was more than 80 hours. One of his baseball coaches said that's as much as a high school sports team would practice before the season starts. It's why theatre kids can now get a varsity letter for it.

Connor had the script down in about two weeks and was practicing the Supercal dance at home with Dan in addition to rehearsals. He put his whole heart into it and I couldn't have been more proud of him. We had family fly in from Florida and drive down from New York to come see it. Plus several of the boys' friends came to watch. That meant a lot to all of us.