Each spring the Spectrum program does a drama. When Tristan was in 3rd grade he was a 1920's dancer in Flappers to Rappers. Last year he was a very animated pirate in My Bed is a Boat. This year the drama was Hubbub on the Bookshelf. Tristan played a Chinese warrior and Jolie was a sneech.
Last year when I saw the drama for the first time (I couldn't go in 3rd grade because of my back injury) I was AMAZED. Tristan was dancing and acting and I knew it was nothing he'd learned from either Dan or I. I was very impressed with how the whole thing turned out. My favorite part of Hubbub was the little 3rd grade Sneeches. My contribution to the play was sewing sneech gloves out of yellow felt.
This year Tristan was disappointed that he didn't get a bigger part in the play. Every year it seems that his best friends get lead roles. I'd heard from a friend that a city near us was getting ready to do auditions for Willy Wonka so I encouraged Jolie and Tristan to try out. I enlisted the help of our teenage babysitters to help them with their music. They worked magic! The kids were so confident and prepared after working with Rosie & Livvy. They really built them up and gave them some good pointers. We went to the audition and Tristan ended up getting a callback. Jolie (being the singing, dancing fool that she is) wanted to be an Oompa Loompa all along so she wasn't too disappointed.
The best part of the audition process was when I was in the hall waiting for Tristan and his friend David. They were both in the callback audition in a closed room with paper over the windows. I had no idea what was going on. They were both trying out for Mike T.V., a hyper-active, disrespectful kid who's addicted to technology. They'd been in there a while and it was getting late. David came out in the hall to get a drink and I asked him what was going on. He told me it looked to be between Tristan and one other kid for the role of Augustus Gloop. I nearly fell over. Augustus is the fat German kid who finds the first Golden Ticket in the play. The thing is, Tristan is neither German nor fat. I just didn't see it.
Sure enough, Tristan was cast as Augustus Gloop and Jolie an Oompa Loompa. The next six weeks were very busy with rehearsals three nights a week plus Saturday mornings. By the time we got to the last two weeks of tech rehearsals and performances, we ate drank and slept Willy Wonka. I was in the sound booth every night helping with sound and lights. I also did the music editing for the musical director (had to refresh my knowledge of Adobe Audition). No wonder I laid awake each night with Willy Wonka songs running through my head.
We all have good memories of Willy Wonka. It was a great experience. One of my favorite memories of the play is when Tristan finally figured out how to melt chocolate. Augustus makes his exit from the play by falling into a chocolate river. Immediately before this, he dips his hands into the river to taste the "hot and cold running chocolate". He is told not to do so by Willy Wonka but being a fat little child with no self-restraint, he sneaks the chocolate while the rest of the group is looking the other way. When they discover Augustus sneaking the chocolate, Willy Wonka says, "Augustus, didn't I quite recently state that my super special chocolate was never to be touched by human hands? Especially yours?" Then Tristan (Augustus) looks up, chocolate is smeared all over his face and he replies, "Toooooo Late!" It took some practice for Tristan to get this right. In the first couple of performances you couldn't see chocolate on his face. Then one night he looked up and the chocolate was there. He got a good laugh from the audience. He figured out that if he put his hand in his pocket in the scene before this, with the chocolate in his hand, it was melted by the time he needed it on his face. That created a monster. Each performance there was more chocolate and more laughter. By the end of the play one of the stagehands told me she was wiping chocolate out of Tristan's nostrils, ears, and every other place it could possibly go.
Another memory is our constant singing of the Oompa Loompa songs: around the house, in the car, Mia singing them while the kids were at school, and by the last few performances we were all singing and dancing to them in the sound booth. Jolie was on the verge of laughing on stage because she could see us up there waving our arms and dancing.
**Need to get Willy Wonka photos from my dad- will hopefully post tomorrow**
2 comments:
Great job by the talented actors in the Cox Family. I had only a bit part in Thronton Wilder's "Our Town". Grandpa was called a Thespian by the principal who wrote to Wayne, the Thespian, in his yearbook. Do you think he had been prevaricating?
So we are not really performers in this family except for Adam who would play his trumpet solo for the basketball games and do stunts with the band. Drama is an interesting thing whether you work behind the scenes or on stage. It is really a good exposure to the demands of getting the production all ready to present. Everyone has a part in making it a success.
Congrats to the kids on what sounds like a wonderful play!!! Wish we could have been there to see it. I love the chocolate story. I can see see Tristan loving spreading it all over his face. Sounds like you've got a good pair of actors on your hand! Now hopefully you can have some down time after what sounded like a very busy schedule.
Post a Comment