With the sound of Lucy!
On General Conference weekend we took a quick break in between sessions and took Lucy to an audition for a community theatre production of Sound of Music. She had to sing a musical theatre piece acapella and memorize a monologue. So she sang 'The Second Star to the Right' from Peter Pan and recited 'Falling Up' by Shel Silversteen.
We prepared ALL week. With a LOT of prodding and one shave less than forcing her to do it. It was a rough week. It's hard to know where to push and where not to sometimes.
Lucy's personality lends towards hermit sometimes. She would be content to sit at home and read or draw all the time. And I'm ecstatic that she loves to read and draw, but I also want to encourage her put herself out there too. And try new things.
I told her the story of when she learnt to walk as an example. I told her how she was perfectly content to sit. Forever. She never pulled herself up on furniture. She never ventured forward with timid steps first, falling down and getting back up. She just didn't try. And then one day, when she was 13-months old, she stood by herself. Without any practice, she just did it. And we clapped and cheered. And the next day she stood up and walked. She didn't stumble. She just walked. Up hill. Down hill. All over. She just walked. That was my first indication of her perfectionist nature.
She doesn't like to try anything unless she knows exactly what she's getting into and that she can do it well. Her teachers have often commented on the same.
And so it is with most anything. She didn't want to try swimming. In fact she would scream if someone tried to hel her learn and took it as a personal attack. But this summer she has taken to swimming on own. Teaching herself.
The same goes with Taekwondo, soccer, etc. One of the many arguments we heard her say over that week was that we always force her to do stuff she doesnt want to. We never let her choose.
We pointed out that it was necessary for us to push her because she doesn't on her own. She tried Taekwondo and soccer, and have it an honest try. When she decided it still wasn't for her, we let her drop it. She chose dancing. Loves it. And we let her chose it. Great.
But singing. Oh singing. I think that girl has been singing longer than she's been talking and she's been talking for a long time. She's often commented that her life is a musical. She will sing things to me rather than say them. So when the opportunity presented for signing lessons with a most fantastic teacher, we jumped at the opportunity.
And Lucy said no.
So we pushed. We insisted. And after one lesson she was hooked.
I told her how she takes after me and that being married to dad is a good thing for me because he pushes me to be more and do more, and I help him to be calm and relax and we make a good team. But that she needs to be pushed sometimes too.
So a musical seemed like the next natural choice.
It was a rough week to say the least. So much pushing, and talking and reassuring and finally just putting our foot down and insisting. And we didn't even know if she'd get the part!
She auditioned. (Someone even started practicing the pipe organ in the other room and she held key and kept going). The director listened to her sing. And said, 'ok thanks.' And stood as if to leave. But Lucy held her ground. Then he said, 'Oh, unless you have a monologue...?'
'Yes, I do.'
So she did her monologue. He smiled and walked us out and our five minutes were up. We went home for the next session of conference, not expecting much and not getting our hopes up, but full of HUGE congratulations to Lucy for trying.
That was Saturday.
On Sunday during dinner I got an email.
Hi
I would love to offer Lucy the part of Gretl for Sound of Music. It would be a shared role. 3 shows out of 6
Hope that works for you.
Cheers
Charles
And we all cheered. She skyped with both our families to tell them the exciting news and they cheered.
At bedtime she said she still didn't know if she wanted to do it. We hugged her and said goodnight.
She went to her feet rehearsal, which was more of a meet and greet, and she came home over-the-moon excited. Phew!
Sometimes being a parent is hard.
Since then she has soaked up all things Sound of Music. We watched the movies and we sing the songs and she gets so excited for rehearsals. And she's doing great. Little Gretl.
And so far, Grandma and Bumpa and Gigi and even Lucy's cousin Emma are coming out to see her performances.
So the hills are alive with the sounds of relief mostly. When is it right to push?
She takes after me so much!
