LeFou for the Win

Oh lands. Here's the other post that I never thought I'd get through. I still might not. This play took up so much time and energy in the Preslar family household that it's rather impossible to accurately relate. But I'll do my best.

Romney was pretty excited to audition for this play, and when she was cast in the part of LeFou, the villain Gaston's sidekick, she was thrilled. And so was I. It seemed like a perfect part. A great character role, but not one of the main characters. Some singing, but not so much that she would totally freak out. Well, that's what we thought, anyway. There was actually quite a bit of freaking out. Romney seems to go through a cycle when she's in a play. It can start with either total elation or complete devastation, depending on the role she was cast in. Then she comes to terms with it and starts to enjoy the rehearsal process. But then it gets overwhelming and she begins to regret ever having taken part at all, and dreads rehearsals and hates every second of it and tries to think of how she can quit. But then things come together, the play gets performed, and she flies up on the wings of her love of performing and she's on cloud 9 for a while. It's tough to keep up with.

This play had some extra angst for her because it was her first time having a solo part in a song. This was especially tough because the song was written for a male LeFou, thus in a lower register and she had to really soar to sing it which she did well. Also the rehearsal schedule was happening at the same time as competition season, and she often had rehearsal for the one-act play after a full afternoon of LeFou rehearsals. It was a lot.

One other little thing that took up a lot of time was the fact that I volunteered to help out with one day of costuming. I was told that a few parents were needed to come in and just distribute some costumes that had been rented. That did not sound like a very big deal. And it wouldn't have been if that had been true. It totally and completely was not. I don't want to get into the details except to say that the costumes needed major help and attention, and the fact that I showed up that one day alerted a couple of other moms that I might be coerced into joining the team. I did way way WAY less than they did, but I still found myself on the team helping with a lot of organizing, sewing, altering and fitting. It was crazy. It was also kind of fun. I did sewing things I didn't know I could do, like make ruffles and create pockets and sew sleeves out of tulle. The amazing costumes you see in these pictures were mostly rented, but I did a little bit and liked getting to know the mothers of both Beauty AND the Beast. And also Gaston. 

Also one little teeny tiny problem happened. After two performances with three to go....the Beast got covid. And so did Babette, Lumiere, and a bunch of other cast members. It was so sad. The play got shut down, and it was totally devastating. Covid will not just shut up and go away. I'm sick to death of typing the word. But there was a miracle - the director got permission from the licensing company as well as the costume rental places to postpone the final two performances for two weeks. Everyone recovered, the play started up again, and the kids put together two awesome performances. They did such a great job. Wonderful singing and acting. And man you should have seen the costumes. 

Romney followed her usual arc and was miserable to the point of tears regularly during rehearsals, but when the closing show happened, she was a big old teary mess because it was over. I didn't blame her. It was delightful.

Okay so there were like 500 pictures to choose from. I picked mostly photos that included Romney but threw a few others in there. It was magnificent.

Oh yeah, one last little story to relate. During the final performance, Romney's microphone wasn't working. Mr. Logan was in charge of the music directing, and was trying to help her get it all fixed before she had her solo. I'm not entirely sure what the whole story was, but there were a lot of laughs when I later heard about the ordeal that was dubbed "Logan's Run" since poor Mr. Logan had to sprint from back stage to the booth at the back of the auditorium two or three times to get her not one but two new mics, get them attached to her without time to remove the old ones, find a way to discretely run mic wires through her costume all within minutes of her solo starting. He totally saved the day. We bought him a Logan's Run t-shirt to commemorate his heroic adventure. And it was just in time. Her solo that night was the best of the run.