Stace and I were blessed to take a long-weekend away in Chicago, as I tagged along on a work trip for him to his company's Rockford, Ill., plant.
On Thursday morning, we took a Lyft ride to the airport - a first for us - and had our final experience walking out to the tarmac and up the ramp to the plane. Burbank Airport is completing a big renovation, with a modern terminal set to open in a few weeks.
Our flights were uneventful (we had a brief layover in Salt Lake City). When we arrived, Stace rented a car and drove to Rockford, while my cousin Elizabeth picked me up and took me to her home. We saw several deer along the way home! So cool.
It was wonderful catching up with Elizabeth, and her daughter Emma. I hadn't seen them in years!
Elizabeth and Emma live in a magical 100-year-old apartment building, with loads of period details.
The windows! The molding! The arched entries! The hardwood floors!
I bonded with their lovely dog, Josie. Would you believe this beautiful (large) girl is half corgie? Neither would I! But as a tiny puppy, that's what the rescue said, and it made sense, at the time. Clearly that was false information. She's a lovely girl just the same.
We had a nice night and morning of catching up, before embarking on a Chicago adventure in the morning.
As I do every show of Cora's, I'll share some photos of her many adoring fans, for posterity.
Here, Jen and Jason, and Kelly, Yass and Char (who is now an actor himself at Cora's old school), with Grandma and Grandpa, before Cora came out after the opening night performance.
On Friday night, Coach Greg and Colleen, Rigo and Liana were among the crowd.
Cora has a hard time with the after-show attention and lobby craziness, so it's hard for me to get photos with everyone. For example Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty flew down and timed their trip so they could see Chicago, but I wasn't able to get a photo of them with Cora. And many other family and friends are also not shown here. Just know that Cora brought in up to 50 paid attendees...
Mel, Nick and ELLIE came to watch! Ellie did great, and was wanting to do all of Cora's dance moves the next day. She's in dance class already, so we'll be watching her on stage soon!
I made sure we got a family photo this time - we've missed that opportunity at other times when Violet didn't attend a show and we'd forgotten.
Check out my T-shirt! Jarod is taking the program bigtime - he's using a platform where you can order merch!
Saturday closing night fun - Sue, Melanie and David, Christina and Cami. Everyone was raving, and Cora was signing programs for random kids!
Cora was so pleased that some of her friends from her old school - and her old elementary school! - came out to support her.
Anna, Shayan and Maxine, and Vaughn as well, got to chat with her new theatre costars and friends.
Playing around with Cora's wig... Cora's hair is so long, it was quite time-consuming to deal with her hair. It involved a LOT of pin curls all over her head so she didn't have obvious bumps under the wig cap. She was one of three girls wearing wigs, and luckily, one of the actor's moms IS a working industry professional with wigs!
Cora's theatre friends from her old school came out, too! Grace and Sadie, Abbie, Cami, Brooklyn and Sam all enjoyed the show.
Here's the completed photo board. Thanks to Grandpa for taking the headshots and to Violet for helping me get the names on them and helping me splatter gold on the board to mimic the promo poster.
Playing with the new photo editing tools - I was able to erase the background. Kind of cool.
Cora's acting, singing and dancing abilities continue to grow and develop, and she was blessed to play the lead, Velma Kelly, in her school's production of Chicago (Teen Edition).
When Cora performed All That Jazz on opening night, I got teary. She's fabulous, truly professional quality. I don't say that solely of my own opinion... so many people asked me if she's pursuing acting as a career, including the vocal director for the show, who didn't know Cora previously. Another man who works in the industry tried looking for her IMDB profile, certain she must already be working.
More from All That Jazz, Velma showing her vaudeville singing and dancing moves.
This is from Cell Block Tango, the song where we learn about how it is that Velma is in jail. She walked in on her husband and sister "doing No. 17!" and, well, she blacked out! Didn't even know they were dead until she was washing blood off her hands! Mmm hmmm.
The Cell Block Tango number was amazing. Very talented girls, great choreography and lighting, catchy song. Cora really shone here, too, growling her way though.
Here, we meet Matron Mama, who holds the keys, and the access to Velma's post-jail connections. Cora had some nice acting moments here.
As Roxie - Cora's friend Dani - starts to claim all the spotlight after shooting her lover in cold blood, Velma begs her to take her sister's part in their doubles act.
In "I Can't Do it Alone," Cora shows off her newly honed dancing ability.
This scene is from "Velma Takes the Stand," where she describes to attorney Billy Flynn how she wants to approach her upcoming trial.
This is from "Razzle Dazzle," the big number with Billy Flynn and Roxie. I am so proud of all these kids, and Jarod the director, for how this whole show looked and sounded. It was so much fun to watch.
After our stars bamboozle the juries and get away with murder, they do in fact perform as a doubles act.
Hot Honey Rag! A great dance number, totally vaudeville style.
And the finale - All That Jazz!!
The theatre had such a successful show - bringing back quality musicals for the first time in years, and selling more than 460 tickets for the four shows. We are so, so proud of Cora.
Oh! I nearly forgot the actual star of the show - Stace's mock piano! Gotta love it!
Closing night final bows, with roses on the floor, from Melanie, thrown from the wings during "Hot Honey Rag."
Dani gave Jarod a bouquet (made by Mel) and a lovely speech of gratitude, and Kyle is handing him a rose.
Our flights were uneventful (we had a brief layover in Salt Lake City). When we arrived, Stace rented a car and drove to Rockford, while my cousin Elizabeth picked me up and took me to her home. We saw several deer along the way home! So cool.
Elizabeth and Emma live in a magical 100-year-old apartment building, with loads of period details.
The windows! The molding! The arched entries! The hardwood floors!
I bonded with their lovely dog, Josie. Would you believe this beautiful (large) girl is half corgie? Neither would I! But as a tiny puppy, that's what the rescue said, and it made sense, at the time. Clearly that was false information. She's a lovely girl just the same.
