The Show Must [Adventure]

[Adventure 154]

Elementary school shows, dance recitals, performances with my sister in our living room, performances with friends in our living room or just about any room in anyone else's house, high school musicals ... I spent my early years performing. A lot.

In kindergarten I played Gramma in Little Red Riding Hood and had to say, "Eek! It's the Wolf!" and run behind the curtain. It was probably around that time that my sister and I started putting on Christmas performances that lasted well into our teen years. Our performances evolved from singing and acting out Christmas carols to music video style performances to serenading the Annual Christmas Brunch guests with a string and flute ensemble performance. 

I sang with my class every year of elementary school and even had a solo or two.

The first and only year I took ballet, we were music ballerinas and I went over the handlebars of my (sister's) bike the day before and had big gauze pads on my elbows and knees. 

From then on it was gymnastics for me - and we always ended each dance recital singing Kiss Today Goodbye from A Chorus Line.

We put on a variety show with the Ennis children in their basement. (See the photo at the top of the post.)

We performed "Yakety Yak" with the D'Angelos...and select songs from An American Tale if I recall correctly ... in our living room.

I played violin in the Naugatuck Valley Youth Symphony and in Orchestra; mallet percussion in Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Jazz Band and Marching Band; piano in piano recitals and the occasional synthesizer in a performance; played Zebulun in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in high school and in college was in the pit orchestra for Oklahoma! I even went to music camp, which culminated in a concert. 

I'm thankful for all of these experiences and opportunities ... and for parents and other family members who sat through all of these performances and mustered up enthusiastic applause for all of them.