Break a Leg Lydia!!

Lydia has always done the Turner Ashby Drama Camp that is held each summer.  This year we signed her up for the Blue Ridge Community College production of Looking Glass Land.  She was in a cast of kids that ranged from 9 years old to 17 years old.  Some of these kids had been doing the BRCC productions for years and some were just starting like Lydia.  She made some great friends and learned so much about acting and stage presence!  She is ready to do the fall musical that starts in September.  The cast practiced each Saturday from January until May.  The week of the production she had rehearsal every night.  It was great seeing her come home every night made up like the red pawn.  :)  Even coming to Emily's softball game, made all up, one night was particularly funny.  She was so wonderful and Mike and I were so proud of her!!!  They did their production three different nights and one afternoon.  We were blown away by the talent that radiated from that stage each time!!

Ms. Cline, Lydia's teacher came to see her on opening night.  She was so surprised and happy to see her!!  Such a special lady!!  Lydia had a classmate, Owen, who was also in this production.  Ms. Cline gave them each such a sweet card and gift card on their opening night.  We will miss her next year in Middle School!!

These two girls were Lydia's dear friends!!  Lydia is next to Olivia and the one in the jean shorts (who had already changed out of her costume before I could catch her for a picture) was Moriah.  Moriah was the first friend Lydia made and Olivia was one that came later.  They were three peas in a pod.  It was great!!  Moriah is home schooled and going into the 7th grade and Oliva goes to another middle school in our district and is also entering 7th grade.  I don't believe there was anyone else that was Lydia's age (entering 6th grade), but they were great to her.  They had also both done BRCC productions in the past.

Grammy and Paw Paw came to see Lydia for the Friday production.  It was great that they were able to come see her!  Grammy came back on Sunday with Lydia's cousin Penny (Adella was not able to come), but Penny didn't want to take a picture with Lydia that day.  Guessing the make up threw her.  :(

This is another Olivia.  She played Alice.  Lydia really liked her and wanted to have her picture with Alice.  I love it!!  She had A LOT of lines to memorize.  It was crazy!!

This picture was taken during a warm up exercise one of the practice nights.  This is Moriah, Lydia and Oliva waiting for their turn in the warm up.

This is the play director.  Justine.  She was AMAZING!!!  She is very laid back and was so great for Lydia and her first year doing this BRCC production.  She is not the director of the musical, but I am sure we will be seeing her next year for the winter/spring production!!!

On Sunday, two of Lydia's good friends and classmates came to see her in Looking Glass Land.  Owen is the guy in the crown next to her.  He was the "Red King" and actually played Lydia's dad in the play.  She thought that was pretty funny. Owen was great as well!!  They are both future talents for sure!!!  Next to Emily is Abby.  She has gone to school with Lydia and Emily for three years now.  Her dad is in the military and this is the longest she has ever stayed in one place.  The day after the last day of school, Abby and her family moved to Hawaii.  Next to Abby and Lydia is Jesela.  She is also a good friend of Lydia's.  She has appeared in blog posts before.

Such a great experience!!

Our little drama queen

For the 2nd year in a row, Lydia has participated in a summer drama camp at the high school where I went to school.  The drama students and their amazing teacher host a week long camp to raise money for a trip the drama club/group takes each year.  The students are the camp counselors and are so great with the kids!!

This year, Lydia attended this camp the third week of June.  She was a little nervous.  As they have gotten older, Lydia and Emily have developed different interests and activities.

While it makes it harder, taking the kids three different directions instead of two, it is really good for the girls to do things without the other to depend on.  She was a little worried because she knew she would not know anyone in drama camp.  I assured her that she would know the kids that were there last year, but since this high school is so far away from where we live and where she goes to school, there are no kids from her school who go.  Upon sitting next to a little girl named Camryn (who was also in the Sushi group), they were talking together and became fast friends.

At the end of the camp, the kids put on the play that they worked all week on learning their lines and show their acting ability.  All families are able to come and watch.  Prior to the show, they show pictures that were taken throughout the week.  The top two pictures are ones I took from the slide show.  She and Camryn are with their counselor in the top one and the bottom is a picture of her with her group--Sushi.

Lydia learned all of her lines without help at home.  She did a great job acting and her character of the Red Chief was flawless!  Such a cute play!

 Next year she will move up to the middle school group.  I am anxious to see how well she does with that.  The middle school group write the plays as opposed to the elementary groups that help their counselors decide what to write about and characters while the counselors write the plays.  All the kids work on their own props and pick their costumes.

It is such a great program and I hope that she is able to participate in it for the next few years.  Until she can be part of the drama club at her high school.

Penny and Adella were spending the week with my mom and dad and were able to come see Lydia's performance that night.  Each of us gave Lydia a flower.  She LOVED that!!  :)

Lydia and Camryn

Drama Becomes Her

This past summer Lydia attended her first Drama camp.  One of our area high schools does a drama camp where the high school students are the counselors.  The drama teacher heads up the camp so that the high school kids can earn money for a trip they take during the school year.  It is such an amazing program!!  I had heard wonderful things and it sounded like it was right up Lydia's alley.  She LOVED it!!  For five days, for about 4 or 5 hours a day, they developed, wrote and acted in a play.  They put on a performance at the end of the week for all the families.  Lydia knew all her lines and even helped prompt another little girl who had forgotten a line or two.  We were so proud of her!!

 Scenes from Lydia's play

Lydia and one of her counselors, Allyson

 The entire group of kids and counselors from the drama camp

She enjoyed dressing up in "wardrobe" and being on a microphone so that everyone in the audience could hear her.  She loves being in front of people.  I wish there was some kind or program like this that she could participate in all year long.  At this point, I am not aware of one.  She will be able to take drama in the 6th grade so we just have two more years before she can do that.  :)