Posts Tagged ‘sound of music’

Two’s a Charm

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Okay, in the spirit of equal treatment, I have to use this space to announce that my five-year-old daughter Clare is now performing as Gretl in the Sound of Music in Toronto.

My daughter Clare's Bio for The Sound of Music

My daughter Clare's Bio for The Sound of Music

Clare had originally auditioned with her older sister in June of 2008, but at only four years of age, decided that she wasn’t ready to be in a show, and dropped out. Always certain that one day she would be ready, when a spot opened up, she auditioned again and now in the show as one of the 3 girls who play Gretl.

This is the point where our family life gets truly nutty. Our calendar for taking kids to shows, dance lessons, etc. is quite an entertaining read. No kidding.

Clare’s doing really well. She had her first show Labour Day weekend and has been doing an average of 3 shows a week. They recently announced that The Sound of Music will be closing January 3rd, which is too bad because it would be nice for her to have a longer run.

Clare splits her time between the two ‘families’ of kids in the cast, so she’s on stage with her sister Hannah sometimes, and others she’s with the other cast. She seems to have fun with both.

Watching your kids perform in a giant theatre is weird. One of the most striking things for me this time out was hearing Clare call Burke Moses “Daddy” on stage.  I can honestly say I’ve never heard any of my four children address anyone else that way…it’s odd.

Another interesting thing about all this is that Clare’s only five (almost six). I don’t really remember much about when I was 5 going on 6, but I wonder how much of this she’ll remember when she’s older. Since the internet never forgets anything, I guess she’ll be able to tell me in twenty years or so.

ShowBiz

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Interesting events recently for my family. My eldest daughter (she’s 8-years old) became a cast member of the Toronto Production of The Sound of Music. She’ll be playing ‘Marta’, the second-youngest Von Trapp child 4 performances a week starting in March.

Sound of Music Poster

Sound of Music Poster

We are not a showbiz family. We have no experience with professional theatre and so it’s a great adventure for all of us.

So far, we’re still in kind of ‘holy crap’ mode. You never want to get your hopes up too high, and you keep your attitude light so that you don’t set yourself and your kids up for disappointment in a process that is so fraught with peril.

Since we’re new to this whole thing, I’m going to track it a bit for everyone. It’ll be a diversion from my original focus here at the LoweLife, but that wasn’t really working anyway. I’m taking a page from 43 folders here and am gonna blog the crap out of this.

Coming soon:

You have no idea all the stuff that you have to consider when your 8-year-old child is going to be receiving a regular paycheque. Or maybe you do? I’m gonna tell you once I figure it out.