This week, that was certainly the case. For the past fourteen years, the neighborhood behind us has used the first full week of summer to rehearse and stage a play in their neighborhood park. This year we were delighted to receive an invitation to join! (We actually had no idea this was a thing, so didn’t feel slighted before, only delighted now.)
After a pool party last Saturday at their neighborhood pool where children were introduced to the conceit of the play before splashing around and eating popsicles, rehearsals began in earnest Monday morning at 9:00 at the brown church behind our house. The original production was titled “The Lost Wonders of Oz”, a nod to both Wicked and The Wizard of Oz. Gabriel, cast as a Munchkin and an Alien, rehearsed from 9:30-10:30 learning his dances with two of the older cast members. Elinor, cast with the other 6-7 year old girls as princesses, rehearsed dances from 9:30-10:30 with two other older cast members. Gwyndelin, one of the older cast members, arrived at 9:00 to receive instruction and learn theater games to play with younger cast members, then joined with Gabriel, Elinor, and the rest of the cast at 10:30 to learn the opening and closing dance numbers. At 11:30 the little people went home, popsicles in hand, and the older cast rehearsal began in earnest.
Gwyn was one of the stars of the Wild West scene, which rehearsal started at 11:30, in which she fiddled, sang a duet of “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” with a boy in our ward, then fiddled again while that little boy did a dance-off with the town Sheriff. Then she joined the other 30 big kids dancing to “Cotton-Eyed Joe” and doing a circle dance.
After that rehearsal, Lia worked with vocal training for the 13 Elphebas and Glindas who sang different parts of a little wicked medley. Gwyn was a Glinda singing the first portion of “What is This Feeling?” perhaps more commonly recognized as “Loathing”. Miriam hung around for all these things and was quite exhausted by the time we went home around 2:30 pm. So was everyone else. All other normal summer activities, including meal prep, took a back seat while we recovered.
While all that was going on, Katharine was at Girls’ State and Abdiel was at BYU Football camp, at which Justin dropped him off that morning at 8:30 am. That term “dropped off” was important, as was the chock-full schedule both Lia and Justin maintained that day, because no communication passed between them, and when Lia’s glitchy phone received a text at 5:30 that disappeared as soon as she opened it that read: “This is Abdiel. I guess you didn’t know this ended at 4:00,” she was in high dudgeon. Miscommunication--to her--is a sin worse than most of the seven deadliest, and a miscommunication that resulted in her beloved firstborn son being picked up almost two hours late was especially egregious. Luckily Julia had the kid car since Katharine was out of town and came to the quicker rescue. Also luckily, Abdiel knew the first rule of being lost is to stay put, so Julia found him tossing a football right at the Indoor Practice Field where the schedule said he would be at 4 pm.
Tuesday was a repeat of Monday, except with a later drop-off for Abdiel and a ride home for him from his friend Hayes’ mom with whom he had signed up for football camp. Abdiel helped make dinner as part of an assignment for that night’s Young Men’s activity, then the rest of the family headed to the Scera pool for half admission night as part of OremFest. Lia is trying to be more supportive of city activities now that she helps sponsor them. It was rather chilly, but the tunes were hip.
Wednesday football camp ended at noon, so Abdiel got to join in with the Wild West fun, meaning he strummed background chords to Gwyn’s fiddling. Lia is hopeful this will be the beginning of a full-blown Bluegrass Band. Abdiel has not yet caught the vision. As soon as rehearsal finished, Lia loaded the kids in the car and headed to Riverton to help weed the property of a sister she ministers to. The kids were not thrilled at first, but the horse in the backyard, the ice cream sandwiches afterward, and the general thrill of seeing a weed whacker in action soon put everyone in good spirits. The perfectly gorgeous weather was also a boon. Justin the knight in shining armor rode gallantly into a house that had only been dirtied and not cleaned at all for three straight days and put it to rights. Lia was so grateful to walk into the smell of a crockpot meal cooking and the sights of a handsome husband standing, broom in hand, in the middle of a spotless kitchen/living/dining room area.
Thursday was devoted to getting everything ready for Elisabeth’s imminent departure to Germany, which was moved to Tuesday morning rather than Wednesday. Lia relayed the joyful news that the case for Elisabeth’s harp would arrive on Saturday, took care of some issues with Elisabeth’s bank account, located Elisabeth’s cookbook which had been misplaced during her move home, and tended to some other loose ends. She also secured all the kids’ costuming for the play as well as a skunk costume for Miriam who had been registered for the Orem City Baby Contest as part of OremFest.
Friday evening at 7, the fateful hour tolled, the curtain rose (or at least a gaggle of adorable children emerged from behind it), and the play began.
Before that, however—because life is never simple for a family of our size and level of activity—Lia drove to Ogden with Julia and Miriam (her first and her last) to collect Katharine from Girls’ State. Julia very kindly tended Miriam out in the corridors, so Lia could watch Katharine’s graduation ceremony. Katharine developed strong ties with the other girls in her Girls’ State “city” (Leavitt) and relished the association with other teens who share her interest in government, history, politics, literature, and ideas. She loved honing her public speaking skills and deepening her knowledge of our constitutional system. Early in the week, she was nominated and duly elected to be a state senator. She later regretted accepting the nomination so readily; it precluded her from running for attorney general. She would have been very competitive for this latter role, especially given that the other finalists all held forth about the judiciary’s crucial role in making our laws, and one—in response to a question about the wisdom of lifetime appointments for federal judges—admitted that she didn’t know much about that topic but could certainly attest to the importance of being on time for appointments in her own life.
When the ceremonies were over, the fearsome foursome made a mad dash southward hoping to arrive in time for the play, stopping along the way so that Lia could respond to a prompting by procuring smoothies and flowers for the half dozen or so principal directors of the play.
The play was called The Wonderful Wonders of Oz—something of a mashup of The Wizard of Oz and Wicked, seasoned with scenes connected to Star Wars, Harry Potter, Annie Get Your Gun, Sleeping Beauty, Sherlock Holmes, and more besides.
Gabriel starred as a munchkin in the opening scene. He was simply adorable with his green munchkin shirt, stripey socks, and thick-rimmed, bright-green glasses (no lenses). Unfortunately, his heart failed him for his later scene, in which he was to feature as an alien in the Star Wars sequence. He wept and refused either to go on stage or to be comforted.
Elinor dazzled in the dance of the princesses. One of the leaders opined that Elinor’s princess dress was her favorite. Midway through the princesses’ dance, all their dads (including Justin) rushed on stage to join them as their respective Princes Charming. That seemed both to surprise and delight the audience. Elinor learned her dances diligently and performed them expertly.
Gwyn brought down the house, both as one of the “Glinda” characters and as a spunky cowgirl in the Wild West scene. She played the fiddle to accompany a dance-off (Abdiel supported her, at a very safe distance, with his guitar), and she and Joel Armstrong staged a masterful showdown with “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better.” We didn’t know our Gwyn was such a native thespian. She stole the show with a mixture of Moxy and charm.
The show was a huge success—an astonishing success, moreover, given that it was put together in a little over a week. Kudos to all the great leaders, Lia included, who brought it all together.
On Saturday, we recovered from the play week by getting up early to go to the temple and rallying the troops to clean the house. Miriam screamed her way over to the Orem Baby Contest and so wasn't exactly looking her finest, but did make her skunk tail waggle adorably; Justin mowed two lawns (ours and his parents’), and Lia emceed for a sequence of concerts at the Oremfest.
Gabriel and Elinor played outside, and Gwyn and Abdiel read inside. Abdiel read the Book of Mormon with the discipline of a Himalayan hiker, spurred by a youth leader’s promise of homemade ice cream and a competitive urge to be the first in his quorum to finish. Abdiel and Katharine also did baptisms at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple.
Saturday’s biggest blessing was that—finally, at the eleventh hour—the case arrived for Elisabeth’s mini harp, so she can take it on her mission! Hooray!
Sunday was a quieter day. After church, we went to a reception for a departing missionary in our ward and did our family Come, Follow Me. Justin then took the five youngest kids to the American Fork Amphitheater while Lia took a nap. In the evening, we went to an informal ward event at which our elders quorum president took pictures of families in front of the Lindon Temple. The air was gentler by then, the sky was a blazing blue, and it seemed to place a fitting punctuation on a hectic, memorable week.
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