Christmas Carol at the HCTO

Well, we survived the crazy rehearsal and performing schedule Olivia had for the Hale Center play.  It was an exhausting but amazing experience for her.  I think she performed in 25 shows between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I learned a little bit of the behind scenes things that go on that make Hale Center shows a step above the rest.  All Thanksgiving week she had late rehearsals till close to midnight every night.  After a show was run they would have hours of notes from all the different directors (sounds, light, dialect, choreography, music, costume, etc.) and each would have very specific corrections related to their niche.  Olivia loved every performance and never got tired of it, she especially loved her free access to soda (with without Mom and Dad around to say otherwise was generally Diet Coke) and wassail backstage.  She loved all the friends that came to watch and support her.  Derek and I each saw the show 3+ times.  I only took a few pictures who catching a bite backstage between scenes.  

Her and Wren being silly and getting excited about the snow the first night the had it set up.  


 Kailey, who was the sweetest young adult that totally made Olivia’s experience the very best by entertaining her backstage with movies on her ipad and endless games of misspelled hangman words, sent me this picture of them one night. 

Luckily, Liv ended up in a few of the pics the theater photographer took for publicity.   Happy Cratchit:




Sad Cratchit:
I was worried that Olivia would get bored with so much time back stage and hardly any time on
stage, but she seemed to love the backstage time just as much as the onstage time.   She particularly loved having dinner with the cast at the theater between shows and excitedly came home every night telling us all about what they had for dinner that night.  One night was pie night and she literally only ate pie for dinner—the benefit of being in charge of feeding herself dinner without the watchful eyes of Mom and Dad.  My Dad and Lynn made it out for one of Olivia’s performances and Aunt Kylie, Babi and Papou, and Nay and Benz all caught her last show.   So Olivia excitedly left her mark on the wall the evening of her last performance.  

Tradition of the theater is that after you perform in your first adult show cast, you get to put you painted handprint on the backstage wall with your name and part.

Olivia loved the whole experience and got to know everyone by name.  She loved getting to hang out with all the big high school and college kids and adults.  At the end of the run, she wanted to bring closing night gifts for all her friends, and when I had her list all the people she wanted to bring the to, I realized the had named almost everyone in both casts except maybe a handful of boys in the opposite cast.  We got little sparkling cider’s for everyone in both casts with the saying, “Cheers to a great run.  “I’m sure your Christmas will be very merry and very happy indeed.” (a quote from the show—Olivia’s idea) Love, Olivia Marshall tied on.  

When I asked her near the end of the run if she was sick of it, she said “nope but she would be sick of not doing any shows when it was over!”  She got to attend a late night cast party closing weekend where she received a red scarf embroidered with the Hale Center’s logo.  On the final night, she received her check of $360.  She decided to pull all of it except $36 for tithing into the bank.  She is already asking me if she can try out for HCTO’s Christmas Carol again next year…I told her to ask me in July.