Liv's Young Nala Debut

The long awaited day arrived, Olivia’s Lion King performance at the Covey Center in Provo.  I was so nervous for her.  The week of the performance they had practice every day from 4-9 pm and were hardly allowed to eat because they were all dress rehearsals in costume.  I thought she would be so worn out from the week, but she honestly loved every minute of it.  Friday, opening day, they had to be at the Covey Center at 8am and would be there until 10pm.  Plus, she was supposed to be Young Nala in 3 performances that day.  I ended up getting special permission to let her sleep and brought her there a little late at 9:30 that morning.

I signed up to help back stage for their noon performance.  Here she is getting the final make-up touches.

I couldn’t believe it she literally and 7 or 8 costume changes in an hour and a half show.  Every time she came off stage she had to quickly throw off clothes and dawn another costume and race out there again.  She did so great, but it was all so overwhelming for her.  After that performance, I called my Mom and told her she should go backstage and help Liv with her costume changes for the next performance.  Not so much because she was incapable of doing it, but because it was so emotionally distressing for her and she didn’t need that on her performance day.

The directors were sort of funny and wouldn’t let any of the parents watch their practices before the performance, so I finally for the first time got to sit down and watch her at her 5 pm performance Friday night.  And holy cow!  Was I blown away.  I mean I knew she would do great and I knew she knew all her lines, but I wasn’t expecting her to do as well as she did.  The costumes and make up were incredible, the dancing and lighting was amazing and Liv was on par for all of it.  She not only delivered her lines, but acted!  She looked sad when she was supposed to be sad, scared when she needed to be scared and excited when she was supposed to be excited.  She even did that thing you do when you don’t have a line, but are on stage and need to be in character—acting quietly with the other characters who also didn’t have lines.  I loved watching her, and had no idea she knew how to do all that!  At the end, she and Young Symba grabbed handed and ran up to the front of the stage for the very last bow.  The crowd went wild every time seeing those two cute 7 years old take a bow and Liv ate that up.

The exciting thing of the weekend was having both Babi and Papou and Poppi and Lynn out for the occasion.  She has so many people come watch and support her:

Hallie, Lennon, Georgia and Mary, Kenadie, the Mayletts, and all her cousins and grandparent.

  She loved having people come up to her after and all her aunts and uncles even asked for her autograph.  Derek and I went to bed that night and he asked me what my favorite part of the show was and we ended up trading back and forth favorite parts for an hour practically recapping almost the whole show.  Proud parents I guess.

In honor of having 3 sets of grandparents in the same city, we hosted a brunch at our place the next morning which went over really well and I kept thinking how lucky my kids are to have to many grandparents alive to know and interact with.  After brunch, Poppi and Lynn took all the kids to build a bear and let them make their own stuffed creations. 

Not sure it’s a good thing my kids now know this place exists, but they loved it.  Camden made a Pikachu, Liv a rock star bunny, and Carter a storm trooper.  Carter insisted on buying some whitey tighty undies for his bear saying “Mom, even Storm Troopers need underwear.”  They put a heart inside each bear, but first they had to rub it on their knees so they bears always need them, rub it on their hip so they are hip and cool, etc.  Then, we had lunch at the mall food court and then Liv and I had to take off to get her ready for next couple performances.  Saturday she was a Lioness and it was the other Young Nala’s turn to have the spot light.

I took the boys over to Poppi and Lynn’s hotel to swim in their pool while Liv was down at the Covey center getting ready for her next performance.  I helped back stage for her 5 o’clock performance.  She looked so grown up standing with all the cast in her costume.   

After that, I decided that while still nutso she had more time between scenes to changes when she wasn’t Nala and emotions were not as intense.  So, I decided she didn’t need me for the last performance and Dad, Lynn, Derek, and I ended up getting a babysitter for the boys and all buying tickets for her last performance too which was still awesome to watch.  She told me on the night she was Nala that she loved being in plays, especially when she is a lead.   So so fun for her and she can’t wait to do another show; however, I am glad to have a little break from it for a while-- those practices took over our life for a month or so.