The Little Mermaid Jr.

Several months ago (around Thanksgiving), Clayton brought home a flier from school. Now, we usually ignore these fliers because they're usually for things like Cheerleading or Hip Hop Dance or expensive summer camp or something that we know we're not going to sign our kids up for. This one was different for two reasons:
1. It was free. FREE!
2. It was a flier announcing open auditions for the civic theater's all children production of the musical, The Little Mermaid Jr.

Justin and I have been looking for some sort of outlet for Clayton. He's a great, sweet kid and sports has been good for him in so many ways but he hasn't quite come into his own yet and doesn't seem to love sports as much as some other boys his age. Noah takes gymnastics but that's his thing and he LOVES it. Clayton doesn't show as much interest. So I pulled him aside, showed him the flier, and asked if he wanted to audition. He said he really, really would like to do that. So Justin and I (mostly Justin, since he has more of a musical background than I do) helped him rehearse over the next several weeks. We practiced his audition song over and over until he knew it cold. He sang so well. I've always thought he had a great little voice and so it didn't surprise me that he was picking it up so nicely.

The day of the auditions, Justin took him. He said that there were a ton of kids there, ranging in age from about 6 (the youngest you could audition) to 18 (the oldest you could audition). The kids had to sing a song AND learn a dance. We hadn't practiced dancing. Oops. Clayton auditioned in a group with four other kids. Justin had recorded the audition on his phone and we watched it together. Clayton did a great job. We did, however, prep him for the possibility that he wouldn't get in the play. Most of the kids were older than he was and most of them had prior theater experience.

When we didn't hear back for callbacks, we knew he didn't get a main part (which we figured wouldn't happen anyway). But weeks went by and we never heard anything. We figured that meant that he wasn't in the play and we pretty much told him that. We let him know we were proud of him and how hard he'd worked and that there would always be another play. He was disappointed, but handled it well.

Shortly after Christmas, Justin got an email from the play director letting him know that Clayton was IN! He was in the sea chorus! Let me tell you, there was a lot of celebrating over here. He knew he didn't have a main part but didn't care. He was IN! I don't remember the exact numbers, but over half of the kids who auditioned did NOT get a part. Plus, Clayton was one of the youngest cast members! We were so proud!

They began rehersing in January. It was a lot of rehersal but fortunately Justin was on a non-call block at the time and so was able to chauffer Clayton to and from most of those. The closer the play got, the longer and more demanding rehersals became. The last week before the show, Clayton wasn't getting home until close to 10:00! On a school night! They were working hard. Some nights it was tricky when Justin was working and I relied on help from a few people in my ward but we got him to and from every rehersal. He was a trooper.

They gave him a script and a CD of the songs and I'm pretty sure we could put on a production of the play in our house if we had to. Even Noah and Josie know the songs and some of the lines! He practiced so much at home. It was great to see him so involved in something. Plus, I've learned that the theater is like a big family. Everyone knew Clayton and always seemed so happy to see him.

Justin and I were there opening night. The play was wonderful! The kids were adorable, and we were brimming with pride for our kid (obviously). To us, he was totally the star! They had a few hiccups and there were definitely some opening night jitters and some things to be fixed, but overall it was great and we couldn't wait to see it the next day.

We couldn't take pictures during the performance, but we got full access after the show! Clayton was a jellyfish:

His costume got in his way a little bit a few times when he had to raise his arms above his head, but he handled it well and made it work.

 So proud of this little jellyfish!

We returned the next day for the matinee. We brought Noah and Josie with us. I wasn't sure how they'd react to the show but they loved it! Especially Josie. She cried when Prince Eric fell off the boat, covered her eyes when Ursula came onstage, shouted "Ariel!" when the Prince was wondering whose voice he was hearing, and swayed and danced in her seat to all the music. It was pretty entertaining just watching her watch the show.

Waiting for the show to start. I told her she could dress up fancy for the show and she took that very seriously.

After the show, she saw Ariel and started to silently stalk her. I called Ariel's attention to Josie and she turned around and started talking to Josie. Jo didn't know what to do. She was speechless (which is very rare with her). She just stared at Ariel and smiled and hugged her. It was like she was meeting her ultimate hero, so we took a picture. It's kind of funny since really, it's just some random high school girl, but don't tell Josie.

This week, Clayton has two shows on Monday and two on Tuesday (the last day of the show). They're performing for local schools. Noah's kindergarten class went to see the show today. Clayton felt like big stuff performing for kids he knows that go to his school. I've loved seeing him feel this way. It's been so great to see him work so hard and be so dedicated and be able to produce something so successful (the show was sold out for every performance)! He told us that he wants to do more theater so Justin and I are looking into acting classes and camps to help him be more visible in the theater-scene (because it's not what you know, but who you know dahling). They also have a kid's theater troupe that sometimes gets to audition exclusively for certain plays (like the Boxcar Children play that will be coming up in a few months). If he decides he's serious about this then that's something for us to consider.

I know that this post was a lot of words and not so many pictures, but if you wait a couple of months we'll have the show on DVD and you can feel free to stop by for a screening anytime! We sure are proud of Clayton and I can't wait to see where he decides to go from here!