Theatre Banquet

 Cora ended her high school theatre experience with a lovely banquet on Friday. Given the importance of theatre in her life, this was really a more momentous event than graduation itself, which comes next week. 

I helped with setup, and we all later helped with cleanup. We had yummy Stone Fire for dinner in a dressed-up cafeteria, and then the awards ceremony in the auditorium.

For the first time, Violet came to the banquet, given it was Cora's senior year and a special event for the family. She hung out with Cora and her friends the whole night and had a great time. 

It's too bad they couldn't have gone to the same school this past year. (Well, they could have, but Vi chose the other school because her friends were going there...I digress...)

The whole group (I think!) pre-awards ceremony

All the seniors were given lighthearted recognition by their peers. Mackenzie gave Cora hers, an award for being not just good, but good enough. Cora used the same phrase as her yearbook senior quote.

We also watched a sweet tribute video for the seniors, with lots of behind the scenes footage from Percy Jackson.

Cora was awarded honor cords and the master thespian stole for graduation, for accruing the most points in their International Thespian Society troupe, with 325. Each point represents 10 hours in theatre work, be that in class, rehearsal, set-building, outside theatre work, etc. Yes, that's a heck of a lot of hours. I've joked that Cora majored in theatre in high school, but it wasn't really a joke.

The graduating honored members of the International Thespians Society.

Cora gave out the Reliability award, which she had won last year.

Then, the big awards - Crew Person of the Year and Performer of the Year.

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Jarod said in his speech, "Every now and again a student walks through the door, and right away, they just have it. There's an instinct, an innate ability to understand all of it - what to say, how to say it, how to feel authentically," he said. "They know where to go without needing blocking; they create characters in such a real way, you ask, are they acting? We've enjoyed so many characters from this theatre artist. Looking back, there's already a career in place. ...

"This is the kind of student that when they graduate, you're not asking 'If,' but 'When?' For me personally, this is bittersweet because their four years has been my four years (as a classroom teacher). It's indeed going to be a challenge to see them go, but man, am I excited to see what happens when they do. 

"This person has worked on stage, behind the stage, in the booth, in the shop, and their question, "What can we do to make it better?" has echoed my own thoughts time and time again. Indeed a Master Thespian, this year's Performer of the Year is Cora."

Jarod didn't name off all of her roles - especially since half of them were directed by him at another school. But this girl has killed it as Jordan (Great Gatsby), Rosencrantz, Brooke Windam (Legally Blonde), Vera Claythorne (And Then There Were None), Megan (Puffs), Velma Kelly, Our Town's Stage Manager and Percy Jackson himself. 

And for competitions, she won awards for portraying MacBeth and Hamlet, and one of Henry VIII's wives in Six.

Watching Cora perform has been one of my highlights as a parent. I'm sad to see this stage come to an end ... but of course excited to see which stage she performs on next.

Jarod also gave some volunteer awards, and gave me a special recognition for four years of stepping up in whatever way needed. 

I was even given an honorary membership in their International Thespian Society Troupe.

Thanks to Grandpa for taking many of the photos here! 

Post awards photos!

Rowan, Lucas, Mackenzie and Cora - a great group of hard-working actors and young people.

Volunteer mamas!

Love these two with all my heart!

Tidbits

 Nice to see a Percy poster up at a favorite Newhall coffee shop - and even better, I didn't put it there!

We're in the season of long musical rehearsals, and I've been doing my bits to help with publicity. I wrote a press release and will make the cast photo board.

Violet has been doing archery when we have time and it's not too hot. This time, we walked the course up in the hill behind the range, where you can aim at animal targets.

Also for PE this week, Violet met up with some people and teachers from her online school for a hiking club meetup at Hart Park. 

Cora's theatre department held a Young Playwright's Fest, with student-authored scenes. Cora took part by reading a part in one of the scenes. She's on the left - I know the photo is terrible. Since she's now driving herself, she went with a few crew/leaders to ice cream afterwards, while we went home. 

I'm so proud of her - she's driving every day, even the early days, when she needs to leave quite early to beat the horrible traffic.

I organized another fundraiser clothing drive for WR PAC. I mentioned it on FB and around the neighborhood, and collected a carload of bags to bring in. My back seat was just as full as the trunk!

I'm pleased to say we raised over $900; last year it was less than $600. 

I helped out Wednesday evening collecting bags, and again on Saturday morning, when the big truck came to load up.

We've been busy with the bifold doors - Stace had to trim everything to get them to fit, and I painted them.

See Evie under the door and Winston on the mattress?

Painting things with cats around! Ha! This was actually the Murphy bed but we were concerned about the doors, too. 

Also this week, we had the carpets cleaned, and the little sofas in the addition. A nice freshening up after the dust and building work. 

On Friday evening, I watched Stace's soccer game, and then we went to Pocock for a drink. 

Week in Review

After not seeing the girls for a couple of days, we treated them to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, and ate out together in the restaurant (rather than getting it to-go, as the girls often prefer). This was our second dinner out with them in a week - before our trip, we used some gift cards and had a "nice" meal out at Red Lobster, where they'd never been. 

 Cora's school had Open House, and I helped at the Parent Advisory Council table for a bit before we went to see her classes. Cora was actually busy with theatre rehearsal - Jarod decided to allow parents to come watch an open rehearsal during Open House. Seeing the beginning stages of a musical number getting choreographed was fun for us non-musical theatre people. It'll be good in a couple of months to see how it progresses.

Maybe silly, but I wanted to get a photo of Cora's government class, only because this is it! She'll be done with high school soon, and I won't be in any of her classes in the future.

On Friday, Melissa and Tiffany met me at Placerita and we hiked the Waterfall Trail. 

Cora has been sick, and missed a few days of school, including a planned rehearsal on Saturday morning.

Stace helped Christina with a little project Saturday, building a storage area in the charity's new resource center.

Over the weekend, we did some work around the house, like Violet mowing the lawn and us starting on the Murphy bed project in the addition - more on that in a separate post.

Theatre Festival!

 Cora participated in her final Hart District Theatre Festival on Friday, and delivered a masterful performance as Hamlet. She was awarded Best Actor in the Shakespeare category!

You can see it by clicking this link:https://youtu.be/LmJ0Xg-URsU?si=10V9DWqzSKpiveud

West Ranch hosted the event, so I got to attend and volunteer all day. So happy I got to watch all the amazing scenes live! And thankful for another mom, an amazing photographer, who took all of these shots.

 

Hamlet is raging at his mother in this scene because he thinks she killed his  father (the king) before marrying his uncle.

Here, he is comparing his uncle to his late father, using two photos he accessed by smashing their frame into a side table.

But here comes Hamlet's father, as a ghost! But only Cora/Hamlet can see him. His mother thinks he is bonkers.

Hamlet killed an advisor, thinking he was his uncle. He had to drag the body offstage.

Winner winner! In her first HDTF, she won best supporting actor in a large group Shakespeare - full circle? She also played Rosencrantz as a freshman, in a play based off Hamlet. Full circle.

And a final full circle moment - we all went out for ice cream together, and the kids were running around playing tag. I was flashing back to Cora's elementary theatre experiences with the GATE Musicals, when the families would gather at the same Stevenson Ranch amphitheater for ice cream. 

I'm grateful Jarod suggested ice cream - it was a great finish to a long and memorable day.

Tidbits

It was a holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., on Monday, so the girls were off school. I met up with Stace (who was not off work) for lunch, at Fish Tail Grill. I had a poke bowl, and Stace had fish tacos. So yummy. 

Violet and I got some PE time in with a walk at Wildwood Canyon in Newhall.

On Tuesday, I ran some errands in Stevenson Ranch, in a big, busy big-box shopping center, and this roadrunner was running around. I took some video and followed him for a bit. Hope he got back to where he needed to go! Lots of big roads here. 

On Wednesday, it was SClarita's turn for fire. This time, it was near the lake in Castaic, and chewed up a lot of acres fast. When I took Cora to school around lunchtime, the clouds were menacing and a line of parents were picking up their kids from school. Though we (and Cora's school) were not close to danger, many students live in Castaic, so they might have been under evacuation warnings/orders.

Stace was sent home from work early, as the evacuation warning stretched to the businesses across the street from his plant. Keith was under an evacuation order, and spent the night with us on the couch. Seb approved.

It was nice hanging with him, and we were glad to be of help. Watching the huge fires in L.A. weeks prior, you just want to be helpful.

Speaking of helping, I spent a couple of hours sorting donations at a local dropoff place, where organizers were collecting goodies for families who'd lost everything. These were the bins of soaps and other toiletries.

We also were able to buy some necessities for the in-laws of Stacey's coworker, who lost their home.