Leora and Anwyn were recently in a production of... I think it was "Ursula and the Eels." Of course, as a proud father, I wanted to take photos of my beautiful children. Then my children said, "could you take some pictures of the other cast members, for Facebook... and the year book?" Flattered, how could I say no? Then they revealed that there were more than 100 teenagers in two separate casts and that they were in their starring roles on opposing nights :(
So, Wendy and I had to go twice (fortunately it was pretty good for a high school musical) and wound up with about 1400 photos of the show. The girls and I managed to narrow that down to just 400 and my favourites amount to 116. Still too many to expect you to peruse. I thought that maybe in Blog form, I could show off just few enough that I won't drive you all away ;)
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| Flotsam and Jetsam |
The first night we saw was Anwyn's big night. She played Jetsam, one of the two pesky electric eels (loved the LED Black Swan look) under the command of Ursula, the sea witch. In the musical version (vs that mermaid movie) the eels have an expanded role including their own hauntingly dischordant song and subsequent reprise. Both Anwyn's singing and her characterization were excellent. Leora did some creepy choreography for them. Very talented parents helped design some eerie makeup.
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| hideous beauty |
So... that is
mostly her makeup. I admit to desaturating the orange tones (would you ever have believed THAT?) to give her a more ghastly appearance. Removing orange is always ghastly, in my opinion, but in this case I think it worked.
Later in the week we saw Leora play Ursula. As her father, I have scant credibility when I say just how awesome she is. The number of people that went out of their way to congratulate us (awesome parenting always leads to skill in musicals) and comment on her performance almost convinces me that my bias is founded in something more than a parent's adoration.
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| The Sea Witch |
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| Don't forget the importance of Body Language! |
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| Extolling the virtues of a "Hot crustacean band" (as if we didn't already know) |
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| Dinglehopper |
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| I wish that I could... be like the cool kids... |
There were others in the play, too... a bird, a fish, a crab, a prince and some merfolk. As far as I can tell, their main purpose in the show was to contrast the powerful sense of betrayal that Ursula and the eels have to live with in exile. I have a few pictures of them, too ;)
I don't know how, but all of these characters survive to the end of the musical. They constantly lie to one another and are mistaken about basic facts surrounding both society and relationships.
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| Scuttle - "Wow, what a swim!" |
Not to provide spoilers, but this musical is a tragedy. Ursula and her righteous eels are eventually destroyed by the power of the 1%. Not one, but two established monarchies combine forces to maintain the status quo and crush the populist uprising.
The rest of the audience left happily humming, but I was devastated.
I now leave you with a few more memorial photos of our beloved and fallen heroes.
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| Waiting patiently... evil always finds a way... |
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| "Did I use some black magic? Well, oopsie, my bad!" |
As I mentioned, each of them had "off nights" where they didn't have lead roles. That was their chance to learn choreography for all of the other songs and dress up in some less elaborate costuming.
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| Is Anwyn a Shrimp? Pipe fish? Who knows. Generic sea cuteness. |
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| Evil dancers for Team Ursula |
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