"Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?"

The Saratoga Springs Celebration of the Arts was an incredible experience. That about sums it up right there.

It was incredible.


The signs were up in the foyer of our church:

"Try-out for the Stake Musical Celebration of the Arts!"

We had been out of town off-and-on for weeks and super busy. I had no idea what this celebration of the arts was about. Our neighbor (and the director) had facebooked about it and I thought, "What the heck, I should have the kids try out."

So we decided to do it. Each child had to sing a solo to try out. Everyone "made it" into the musical, but they just wanted to know where to place people.

Connor wasn't sure about it all in the beginning. I told him, "Just try it, and if you don't like it, you never have to do anything with musical's again."

He tried out along with Makenna and McKay.

Connor sang a song from "Lord of the Rings." Makenna sang, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," and McKay sang his classic piece, "A Dream is a Wish," from Cinderella.

They were nervous, but did really, really good.

Makenna was cast as an orphan in "Annie."  

Connor was cast as an orphan in "Oliver", and McKay was cast as Oliver from, "Oliver."  :o)

Little did we know what we were getting into.

We had no idea of the time commitment that would be required to be involved in this show. Rehearsals started the first week of September. Every single Saturday morning for at least 1 or 2 hours, and every Thursday night, McKay had a solo practice session that lasted about 2 hours. It was pretty nuts, especially considering that Brett was out of state for the months of September and October and I was working every Saturday.

I have to stop right here and thank everyone who helped us make all this happen. I was usually unavailable on Saturday mornings teaching my temple class to help earn a little extra mu-lah while Brett is doing his residency. My parents were always there to help and the wonderful people in our ward and neighborhood were more than willing to cart our kids around to and/or from these practices.

Thank you. We couldn't have done it without you.

At one point during all these practices and our crazy lives with everything else going on, I thought to myself and did tell a friend or two,

"This musical production is taking over my life."

I was ready for it to be done and over. This comes after asking McKay to work on his "English accent", after the first week solo rehearsal. (For reals? He's 7 years old.) This comes after the kids knowing the words to all their songs perfectly and then adding some pretty tough choreography into the mix, and them suddenly forgetting the words. This after 2 nights of back-to-back, 6pm - 10pm rehearsals. Yes, 4 hours and yes, on school nights. BIG *sighs*. Seriously, this wasn't broadway. It's a church production, people. I had no idea the vision the directors had for this show.

Then I saw the run through.

I saw the stage built out and up.

I saw 2 sets of scaffolding and lights. I saw wireless mic's and a sound system my high-tech brother was coveting.

I saw the Paul Mitchell school of beauty come and do everyone's hair and makeup. Not only for the run through, but for the other 2 nights of performances. They made my kids feel like stars.

I heard the other cast members singing. The talent in our stake is, one word: FABULOUS!

There was something magical about it.

I did not know it before that moment, but I knew it then:

This was going to be amazing. I could not wait.

The kids loved the first 'run through' and couldn't wait for the real performances.

McKay getting his make-up done. Of course, after the first night, he was best friends with all the make-up ladies. The all loved him. One even asked me if she could 'rent' him for Christmas to take to her family Christmas party.

Make-up on another night. He looks happy to be getting it done, right? Him and Connor were very excited to be able to wear make-up. It surprised me just a little.

Kenna in her Annie costume getting her make-up done. This girl doing her make-up with the blonde dreads was the one who wanted to rent McKay.

Connor in his "Oliver" get up and make-up

Kenna in her opening outfit, getting her hair done. She LOVED this.

Kenna getting her make-up done

Kenna with her good friend Em

Sister Foess helping to get the girls ready for "Fiddler"

Kenna ready to go on!

Through out the rehearsal and practice process, McKay seemed to find all the older, cute, teen-aged girls for his friends. Every time I saw him out in the halls or in the "green room" he was with some cute, older girls.  They always said, "Are you McKay's mom? Oh, he's so cute, we just love him!" What a flirt! Ever since he was little, he has been a ladies' man.

McKay with Mimi

McKay with "Bet" or Robin.

Here is McKay showing off his piano skills. All the girls loved to hear him play.

Here is McKay surrounded by girls from "Bye Bye Birdie"

Kenna in the midst of all the orphans from Annie

Cute little Kenna. Even though her hair looks 'crazy' she still is so beautiful.

Kenna with the Granata sisters, Maria and Alisa

McKay with the 'other' Oliver, Warren.

Warren and McKay with "Professor Harold Hill" (Gregory Harrison) from the "Music Man"

McKay with Em

Some of the cast-- McKay is right in the center with "Nancy"  from "Oliver". He LOVED her.

Some of the 150 cast members-- the talent was incredible. 

Cute Kenna

One of the only pictures I have of Connor-- during the rehearsals he was always off with his friends or reading on one of the couches in the foyer

McKay singing his solo, "Where Is Love?" It's a really sad song about Oliver finding someone to love him. From week 1, McKay and Connor both nailed the English accent with no probem. Good thing they take after their dad and we've listened to the Harry Potter books 10 times each. I couldn't do a good english accent if my life depended on it.

One lady told the director, "That sweet little boy who played Oliver had me in tears while he was singing,  "Where is Love? I just wanted to find him and hug and kiss him!" The director told me that she assured the lady that he came from a good home and did indeed, have a mother that loved him. She said he was just being a good little actor. 

We did have to work on the sad face because he usually just is so happy about everything.

McKay meeting "The Artful Dodger"

Most of the boys singing"Consider Yourself". Connor is on the far right and not in the picture. :(

McKay after "Consider Yourself" with Nancy and Bet

McKay singing, "I'd Do Anything" with Bet. And may I just say that this "Bet" (Robin) was awesome with McKay. She would show him how to do things and lead him just right to help him know what to do and where to go. He LOVED her, too. In fact, the director had said that if the boys wanted to, they could kiss Bet's hand at the end of this song. At first, McKay was having nothing to do with that! But as he got to know Robin, the more he liked her and he actually wanted to do it.

McKay meeting the creepy, old Fagan

Makenna, Annie (Abby Higbee) and McKay

Oliver and the Dodger

I have to say that this whole experience was really amazing. Truly amazing. The people who put this on, really were talented, passionate people and this was an experience my children or I will never forget.

I want to thank all those involved for such a wonderful experience and opportunity.

Our Stake President talked to the whole cast before one of the shows and kind of told how this whole thing had come about. He said that the Brethren had asked the stakes to start to do some cultural arts shows again. These kind of shows were pretty big back in the day, but I think they were done away with because they saw them as 'one more thing' that took people our of their homes and took away family time. I think they cancelled them in hopes that if they did away with shows, families would use that time to be together. Well, now I think they're finding that families are just as busy and not spending that time together, they've filled it with other things. I think they've brought it back because there were so many people: families, teens and kids,  involved doing something good; something wholesome. People learned new skills, shared and developed talents and were uplifted.

The performances were nothing short of.........amazing. Words cannot describe how awesome it was. It was so fun to be in the audience and hear people talking about McKay. Ladies were in tears, people were whispering about him and commenting on how good he was. They were commenting about his cute little accent. It was such a proud mom moment.

Connor and Makenna were wonderful, too. I think Connor could totally pass as an English boy to anyone on the streets of London. Makenna totally nailed her dance moves. She's never been in dance before, so I was a little nervous about her sticking out like a sore thumb. But she loved dancing and really came out of her shell, performance wise. I am so proud of all of them.

After it was all over, Connor said, "Mom, I would totally do that again."

For the weeks following, we've been going through musical withdrawals. Really. We miss it. We've been listening to and watching show tunes on youtube for the last few weeks. My kids favorites: "Bye Bye Birdie, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof and Les Mis.

My kids are forever changed. I am so proud of them and all the hard work they put into this show. It was so worth it. Thank you to everyone who made it all possible. THANK YOU to all who worked so hard to make it a success!