Fabulous Army Life

My theater-loving teen is thrilled with our relative proximity to New York City and, more specifically, the Theater District on Broadway. In his fifteen years, he has seen four Broadway shows already ... "Wicked" for his thirteenth birthday, "Cinderella" and "Aladdin" as part of a Fairfax County school field trip to Broadway for his 8th grade theater class (including an acting class with one of the actors in Cinderella!), and now "Phantom of the Opera" for his fifteenth birthday. For his fourteenth birthday, we saw "Peter and the Star Catchers" at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Quite a resume of experiences for someone who can't yet even drive. I am grateful that we live close enough to make the drive and back in one day. We want to take advantage of our location while we're here and our kids have definitely reaped the benefits of that. This trip was a lot of fun, starting with a delicious Italian dinner at Orso, then ...

My teenager was thrilled when he discovered Fairfax County Schools' IFTA summer program.  "Institute For The Arts" is a summer school program, six weeks of four different courses, chosen by the students.  Trey chose Stage Combat, Foundations of Drawing, Alternative Strings, and Introduction to Computer Graphics.  He LOVED every minute of it and was sad when it ended.  His brother thinks he's completely insane ... "signing up for SCHOOL in the SUMMER on PURPOSE!?!?" but he had a great time. IFTA hosted an Open House during the last week of classes so Nate, Joshua, and I got to see some of the cool things he has been doing.  First up? Stage Combat.  I love that the instructor talked us through their methods and goals then emphasized that stage fighting is the exact opposite of real fighting.  Real fighting focuses on hurting the other person while stage fighting is all about making sure the other person is safe. This is what it looks like when y...

The cast of "Guys and Dolls" put on two magnificent performances today. The 3:00 matinee was only topped by the grand finale performance at 7:30 tonight. These kids have worked so hard and put so much into this show ... and it was evident by the consistently fantastic acting, singing, and dancing.  Trey says he's not sure what to do without the myriad of rehearsals and performances and he cannot wait to audition for next year's musical, announced tonight. Seussical the Musical will be the Spring 2014 performance at Thoreau Middle School!

Trey had a fantastic second performance tonight!

Tonight was opening night for the Thoreau Middle School Theater Department's production of "Guys and Dolls."  The cast was FABULOUS and Trey was absolutely spot-on with his impression of the NYPD cop, LT Brannigan.  So proud of these kids for all of their hard work!

Enjoying a fabulous pre-show dinner at La Masseria in the Theater District. Trey and I chose the "Black and White Pasta" ... dyed with squid ink. Nate went with fish ... a literal fish. Wicked is just amazing the second time seeing it! The boys thoroughly enjoyed the show.