Bilbo Baggins, at Your Service

Last night was an incredible end to a long and astonishing week. On Monday, K auditioned for and was cast as the lead character Bilbo Baggins in his drama camp production of "The Hobbit". He had an extraordinary number of lines to learn (more than I have had in most of my productions, in fact -- the show itself is 75 pages long), and only a week in which to do it. He worked himself silly to accomplish last night's performance, with 6 hours of camp every day (and no breaks for the star actor, as he was in every scene) and 3-4 hours every night of line work. Honestly, he worked harder and put more time and energy into this production than I have in many of my own shows. He was also 2-7 years younger than all but two of the other campers.

K LOVED doing the show itself, but was thoroughly impressed with just how much work goes into making a show happen. I'm pleased that he was able to see intimately what it is that I do, why I sometimes grumble about the work involved, and why I continue to do it in spite of that. I overheard him tell the director of the camp (who hoisted K to his shoulders while the other campers cheered for him) that he couldn't wait to do the camp again next year. It has been amazing for me to see how much the other children respond to him, too. Everywhere he went all week, he was greeted with enthusiastic claps on the back and excited "Hi Bilbo"s or "Hey there, K"s. He does have a bit of the director in him, though, as he found it difficult to not tell the other actors what to do on stage. We'll have to work on that whole concept of concentrating on the log in one's own eye! ;-)

Of course, I don't have great pictures -- but the show was videotaped, and there are pictures from the dress rehearsals that I hope to receive soon. The only pictures I managed to get before the cast members ran off in their post show excitement and glee to sign each other's scripts and programs were of the curtain call (K coming out last and alone in grand Hobbit style) and the group shot at the end. In all, about 20 children participated.

I'll post better pictures as soon as I get them. It's time for this proud TheaterMom to fold some laundry...