Lots of News

 It was an eventful week with cars, but I'll save that news for later. But we were short a car, so I was getting out at 6 to take Stace to work a couple of days. Cora went to stunt workout classes in Burbank several days - she's loving it! 

It was also a cooler week, so the girls were able to have their first riding lesson in a while. 

Violet is riding Bandit, and Cora is on Rocky. 

After working on the bathroom a lot on Saturday, and searching for a new car, we took a family trip to Carpinteria on Sunday. Even Cora came with us! 

We enjoyed lunch and teas/coffees at our favorite Thai place there...

And we also took the walk along the bluffs to see the seals. 

Stace and I went to the Main theater to see a play called The Dresser, which was very well done. We got a drink afterwards at the Refinery. 

The girls went to a friend's house to watch Treasure Island, since that is what Cora's old school is performing this fall. Cora is planning to help with stagecraft and stage managing again, and this year they want Violet to be a paid tech employee, working in the booth.

Violet started her junior year of high school this week! She's taking one class in person, another AP art class, this time focusing on 3D art. Her plan is to make a stained glass lamp shade.

I picked up and packaged/froze my order of 30 pounds of organic peanuts from Azure Standard - it looks like an insane amount - and maybe it is. 

But we actually went through a full order of 30 pounds in exactly one year, and were about to run out. (We eat a lot of peanut butter, and Stace likes snacking on peanuts or homemade trail mix after dinner.)

I got an email that the county was holding free music and dinner events at various parks, and this week one would be at Val Verde Park. Since Colleen and Rigo were free, we made a night out of it. We enjoyed our free tacos and salsa music.

Meanwhile, Cora went to an orientation for Fright Fest, and found out she will be on the slider team! Very exciting; she's worked so hard.

Theatre Banquet

Cora's high school theatre department had its banquet Monday night, with a catered dinner in the cafeteria and an awards ceremony in the auditorium.

I helped Jarod's wife and a couple of other moms set up the dining area. Jarod's wife had a lot of great decorations and it all looked sweet.

Jarod had awards for Willingness, Responsibility and Thoughtfulness - spelling out WRT, for West Ranch Theatre. Cora was given an award for Responsibility. Mackenzie read a statement about Cora that praised her "purpose, professionalism, dedication, stability, skill and competence." 

"Sharing a stage is a wonderful game of give and take, and there is a sense of security when you share a stage with her," Mackenzie said. 
 

The frequent parent volunteers were given gifts, too. About Stace, Jarod mimicked his accent, and said, "It's a piano, innit?" Lots of laughter!

Each senior received a certificate with an award from a classmate, some of them more serious, some more humorous. Cora's recipient wasn't present, so Cora pretended to pose with her. 

Dani won a well-deserved "Performer of the Year" trophy - here are our Roxie and Velma! Final theatre event together... They got ready for the evening at Dani's house, with Dani helping Cora with her hair. 

Cora and some of her senior friends - it'll be different next year. 

But one year in, and we can say that we're glad Cora made the move to this high school. She's very excited about the shows on tap for next year.

Chicago - Friends and Family Edition

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. 

The actual photo...

So, so proud of this girl. 

 

Chicago!

 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.