A star is born

Here's one more....

Last week, Rylee attended camp at the Stages Children's Theater. This was the second year that she participated in one of their summer workshops for preschoolers. 

The camp teaches some basic acting skills - our favorite lesson is the actor's attitude, "OK, I'll try it!" Rylee first learned this principle last summer at camp, and she's taken it to heart all year. It works well for performing on stage, but also for a variety of other things - i.e., how would an actor eat Thai food? Rylee is generally not at all squeamish, and relishes trying new things. But for those few times that she's feeling more hesitant, reminding her of the actor's attitude is usually all it takes.

Camp is organized around themes - all of which come from children's books. Rylee's selection this year was "The day the crayons quit."  For those of you unfamiliar with the newest fine literature for preschoolers, the premise of this book is that a boy named Duncan discovers that his crayons are missing. His crayon box is instead filled with letters from each crayon, outlining their various grievances that they would like addressed (i.e., some feel they are being used too much, some not enough, some wish he would color more neatly).

The highlight of the week is that the kids put on a performance on the main stage for their parents and guests. The children acted out the story. Rylee starred as "orange crayon," who is in a fight with yellow crayon over who should be identified as the real color of the sun.  [Originally, she had selected peach crayon as her role. The peach crayon is upset because it's paper has been peeled off. Naked, he's too embarrassed to be used. Rylee decided that she didn't want to stand on stage and imagine that she was naked, so she asked to switch to orange].

Here she is on stage.  This girl loves to perform. Not a trace of stage fright or nervousness. She eagerly screamed out her lines in her fake fight with her new friend from camp (who interestingly, she knew only as "my best friend, yellow crayon").

And of course, no crayon-themed theater experience is complete without a musical finale featuring the not-at-all-overdone "Lean on Me."