Les Mis and Latest Auditions

Well it seems as though Liv has found her niche and theater is definitely her favorite way to spend her time.  We see so many shows together which is fun, she always seems to be auditioning for something or rehearsing/performing her current show.  And if not that then she is at some sort of vocal, dance, or MDT type class or practicing something for one of those classes to improve her skills for all of the above.

She recently auditioned for COPA’s MDT company in American Fork.  The audition required both a vocal and dance audition. For the dance audition they had the kids come one day to learn the dance and then posted a video to practice at home before the audition.  The dance audition was tough and almost had her in tears practicing it before her audition.  I was able to get her together with my friend Camille who was so nice to spend an hour breaking up the steps for her, so she finally felt more confident in her audition.  Audition day arrived and I was blown away by the crazy amounts of people there auditioning.  We got there right at the start of audition time and we labeled auditioner #66.  

And watching all the girls twirl circles around the room in front of us made me nervous she might not make it.  She sang the Work Song from Disney’s Cinderella.  I’m sure she killed her vocal audition and has quite the resume for an 8 year old little girl when we put it all on paper.  She felt good about the dance audition.  3 weeks we waited and finally heard that she was accepted.   I love watching her audition for stuff that stretches her though and doesn’t just fall in her lap.  We are excited to try this, but it looks like it will be quite the commitment next fall.

Liv and I were looking up shows to audition for next fall and came across a theater in Draper that was doing Oliver this summer.   I was really hoping to just take her to see the show in August since she sang Where is Love for her Les Mis audition, but then realized they were holding auditions for all children age 6 and up that very night.  It was 8:30 pm and the audition ended at 9pm that evening in Draper.  So, on a whim she changed into a dress and we drove up.  We picked an audition piece in the car.  She sang Chim Chim Cheree from Mary Poppins.  It wasn’t the most confident she has ever been in an audition, but she still did great.  And low and behold she got a callback for the part of Oliver!  Four little boys and Liv.  So the next Saturday morning we drove up for the callback.  Of course they had all the kids sing Where is Love, which Liv killed having just sung it for an audition.  The poor boys struggled through it because they all had never seen the song before that morning, but you could tell some of those boys had great little voices and would do a great job with some coaching.  They ended up giving two of the boys the part, but offered Liv a part in the ensemble.  We thought about it hard because Oliver is such a fun show for kids, but were at the time in the midst of tech week for Les Mis and felt like we just needed to take a little breather.  So for the first time ever in Liv’s theater career…we declined a part.  We sent a text to the director thanking them for the audition and call back, but told them we needed to take a breather, and told them we look forward to seeing the show in August (which we do)!

Her latest show was Les Mis.  The poor girl ended up with strep throat right in the midst of tech week.  I took her to the doctor and she staggered in and laid herself down right on the couch in the waiting room.  

(Actually the two boys came down with strep this go too).  But, after a few days of antibiotics she and the boys were back to their normal selves and back to rehearsing for Les Mis.  Les Mis was definitely a special show for Liv.  The cast was all so tight almost like a family and they put on an incredible show.  The older leads were so talented.  Liv’s whole cast was really amazing.  Opening night she played Young Eponine.

Derek and I saw 3 of 4 shows a different Young Cosette was cast for each show, but I swear the night Liv performed as Young Cosette was magical.  It was just good theater.  So many of the kids felt this was the best show and best cast and best performance they had ever had.  The way the audience and the cast on stage interacted with each other was incredible.  They both fed off each other so well.  In one scene, Thenardier’s pants fell down which was not scripted, but he recovered so well and turned it into a joke with the audience for the rest of scene.  Just brilliant theater.  And watching Liv sing Castle on a Cloud was an experience to be remembered forever.   She wore a blond wig and when she first appeared on stage singing Derek didn't even recognize her and though they had cut Liv out of the show!  



At the end of her play that night the audience burst out of their chairs in a standing ovation and just kept clapping and clapping as the light went down.  So they turned them back on and sang One Day More again.  Everyone cheered again as each cast member sang their little bit.  

Olivia had so many friends and family come to watch her which was fun.  She made bags of gummy bears to hand out to everyone who came that said, “To love another person is to see the face of God.  This BEAR-ly does it justice, but thanks so much for coming. Love, Olivia!”  

I even loved just watching Liv in Gavroche’s Gang.  There was one scene when she was pretending to eat a plastic apple.  It looked so real…I’m pretty sure by the way she had her mouth all over it that this was the way she picked up strep throat!  The cute scene where Gavroche’s Gang sing about how little people know and will fight like 20 armies and they all hop towards Javert with their fists up got the audience hooting and hollering every time.  And Liv was always right there front and center—aside from Castle on a Cloud that was one of my favorite parts with her on stage.  Liv (and everyone) just had such passion on stage when singing.  

 When the show was over a bunch of the older kids were going out for burgers and then meeting to make a campfire and roast s’mores at someone’s house.  Liv begged and begged us to let her go.  And when Derek remained firm and told her NO because she’s 8 (and not about to start college like all these other kids) she cried through her tears and snot covered face and told us we’re mean.  And when Derek asked why he is mean she bawled, “Because you won’t let me hang out with my friends!” with such anguish that we both burst into laughter listening to how teenagerish she sounded.  Gave us a glimpse into the future.  Overall, I’m just so glad she got to be part of such a great show, with such a great cast, and got to play such a fun role.  It was a really good experience for her.  She gave each of her directors, who were also planning to go on tour with this group to Disneyland the next week, homemade bleached out Mickey shirts.  She made them herself and did much better making them than I did when I tried.