Although I already posted this on Facebook, I wanted to dedicate a post specifically to my drama queens wonderful daughters! And yes, I need to toot my own horn as I was a member of the International Thespian Society when I was in high school. Unfortunately, their school does not have a Thespian group – but, to be truthful, all it did for me was I had to go through a hazing ritual of being awakened around 5 o’clock in the morning by two thespians screaming at me to get up and once I was in their auto with a pillowcase over my head, they drove us around on the back roads and then took me to the green room in our high school and put full makeup on me in the form of some soldier (still clueless who that soldier was supposed to be) and I had to wear that the entire school day. And to this day, I *still* cannot believe that my aunt and uncle left the garage door unlocked so these two guys could come and kidnap me!!!
Anyway, my two oldest are both cast members of their school’s one-act play this year, “The Color of Life”. I have yet to see a performance but think I will get a chance to do so this coming weekend.
Our oldest daughter has now been in three one-act p lay (OAP) casts and seems to be chosen each time as a character actress….she is usually the mom or aunt or the matriarch of some family. An integral part of the play but not really noticed for awards.
Interestingly enough, our next oldest daughter was not chosen to be in the original cast, just in the company (lights, understudy, assistant stage manager, etc.).  Then the unthinkable happened and the gal she was an understudy for didn’t make the grade in one of her classes so she was temporarily removed from the cast and our daughter took over her role. The young lady has since gotten her grades up, but is in the company and not in the cast. DD#2 took over her role more than halfway through the practices and has obviously made up for lost time as this was the role she wanted in the first place!
This past weekend, the OAP crew performed at the Wimberley High School Lone Star Theatre One-Ace Play Festival in Wimberley, Texas. It’s a great event, put on by a much bigger school than we have in Medina – but, they did separate out the schools based on their state classifications (one-A, two-A, etc.). Their own director gave them a 7 out of 10, so she was pleased but saw room for improvement.
The plays at this festival aren’t “ranked” by winners and such, it’s put on more for the opportunity to have qualified judges critique your play to help get each OAP company ready for UIL competions. They received only a few critiques, so just a few things to work on.
But, the biggest surprise for everyone in the cast and company came when DD#2 was chosed as an All Star Cast award! That is HUGE, especially since she has just a supporting role in the production. She must have NAILED her performance and made a big impression on the judges. And, she was the only one in our little school who received that prestigious award! One other young man in their cast received an honorable mention for the All Star Cast and their lead character received the overall best actress award (rightly deserved). All of us were amazed and excited about this award. And for the sake of not wanting to hurt any feelings, I made sure DD#1 was okay with me saying these things about DD#2 in such a pubic way. She is just fine with it, and even mentioned she had very happy tears for her sister when she was called up for the award.
DD#2 with her All Star Cast Award
My two “drama queen” daughters – sharing DD#2’s award
We should all be proud of our children, but this mom is especially proud that I have both right- and left-brained children who can go from being winners in a one-act play and turn around and do chemistry or math equations in their heads!
