Lynnwood Stake Play 2021

In November our stake was finally able to perform our stake play. They'd originally planned on putting on "Mary Poppins" in the fall of 2020, but that was delayed until 2021. We auditioned in the summer when Covid case rates were low and vaccinated people didn't need to wear masks (though that would all change in August and we ended up needing to mask up for rehearsals up until Tech Week). They also switched from "Mary Poppins" to a musical revue so that we had more broadcasting rights, were able to involve more people, and could give everyone a chance to shine. 

Mom and the kids came to Thursday's dress rehearsal. Allison was far better behaved than I expected. I thought mom would have to take her out several times, but mom tells me she was engaged and entertained. She especially liked the scene from "Annie." Her only issue was that she got tired during the 2nd act. Our friends watched the kids on Saturday night so mom could see a performance without needing to watch the kids too.

Oscar was in 3 scenes while I was in 4. Our main scenes were from the "Pirates of Penzance" medley where he played Frederic and I played Mabel. Frederic is the pirate apprentice, so the pirate king sits on him during the "Pirate King" song to show off Frederic's lowly station and why he needs to marry to free himself from his unfortunate position.

The ladies (I start off on the far left/stage right then eventually move to the middle) come out to sing "Climbing Over Rocky Mountain."

We skipped and moved around a lot in this one, which could make it a bit challenging to sing our next pieces.

Then our father the major general came out to sing "I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General."

After that Oscar came out to sing "Oh is there not one maiden breast which does not feel the moral duty to rescue such a soul as mine from his unfortunate position?" The rest are repulsed at the thought of being with a pirate, but Mabel comes to his rescue.

The other ladies try to discourage me but I push them off to sing "Poor Wandering One."

Arianne, who is also a trained classical singer, did a duet with me on "Fair days will shine. Take heart!" Our director took the echoing flute part from Mabel's cadenza in the movie and turned it into a duet for Arianne and me with the other ladies making movements to match the musical motion of our cadenza.

Our photographer got some great shots of us during the duet.

At the end I look like I'm going in for a kiss then sing a high Eb right in Oscar's face. Bryan had the idea that my high note should knock Oscar over. The pirates catch him, push him back up, then he dips and kisses me.

The pirates finished off singing "With Catlike Tread," then they all grabbed a lady and ran off the stage. Lynn had to leave early since she was in the very next scene, which left us with not enough ladies for each pirate. During Saturday afternoon's performance one of the pirate's jacket buttons got wrapped around one of the curls of my wig, and we had to walk off with him too. It was so badly twisted we ended up just having to tear the curl out. Thank goodness it wasn't my real hair!

Some cute photos from backstage.

Oscar was in the ensemble and had a few spoken lines in the "How Does She Know that You Love Her" scene from Enchanted.

Oscar's last scene was "Into the Fire" from "The Scarlet Pimpernel."

He enjoyed having hair while it lasted. Oscar marks easily, so every night you could tell exactly where his wig cap had been.

My next scene was "One Day More" from Les Miserable. This was my least interesting costume and the scene that required the least blocking. We mostly parked and barked with a slow march at times.

My next scene was as a nun in "Raise Your Voice" from "Sister Act." We began with some off key caterwauling (which I had a lot of fun with as you can see in the picture on the bottom right) before Helen comes in to tell us we "need some help from heaven!"

Helen comes in loud and strong telling us "first rule of singing get those rafters ringing." We're skeptical but also intrigued.

Helen then starts calling a few of us up for short solos, but then we sit back down.

Lynn then does a big solo that gets all of us up and jamming.

At one point we put down our hymn books, and I stand up on the bench to sing "Raise it up!"

We totally let loose by the end. We got to keep our nun costumes too. I fully intend to record myself singing "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" in it at some point.

Elder Price from the Book of Mormon musical makes a cameo when Bryan says the show needs to be more religious. Andrew even made his own name tag.

And my final scene and the last song of the show was "There Can Be Miracles" from "The Prince of Egypt." I wore Teresa's costume from when our stake did "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" since she wasn't in this scene. It was my favorite costume.

Malia came to see us perform on opening night. Friday night's show was also the best audience. They laughed in all the right places and cheered heartily.